Emma Zeth - The Lucky Prepper - A Gardener's Story of Surviving a Pandemic

I walked across the road to Alex next. He was in the garden, digging away. I gave him the news and he gave me a big hug, ‘sorry Miss, I’m just so happy,’ he said, ‘it will be great to see Drew and the others again, plus they can help with the work.’ He picked up the spade again and set to with a will, whistling while I wandered around. The gardens on either side had large raised patio areas and mature shrubs. It would be hard laborious work to dig out the shrubs or lift the patio. When I had looked at Leila and Taz’s garden I’d had a vision of a large combined strip of gardens, stretching all along behind the bungalows, farmed all together rather like the allotments at Wendover had been. However, on this side, it looked like it would be too much work to do that. The gardens would have to stay as individual units.

I stared over the fence at the sun shining down on the patios. I looked at the overgrown lawn with the swings and slide in the middle. Maybe it would work for Nina and her two children. She should hopefully be up to some light container gardening soon. The patios were south facing and would suit the potato plants. They wouldn’t require much work, especially if we moved the irrigation system from my garden.

I walked back to my bungalow making plans but as I entered Mark called out ‘I have bad news,’ he said, ‘they’re being transferred to a salmon fishery in Scotland.’ I walked into the kitchen and sat in the chair beside him.

‘That sounds a bit drastic, even for David’ I said.

‘That man is vicious.’ he replied, ‘he shows a pleasant face to all the camp residents, but he was always nasty to the refugees, especially the girls.’

‘I saw,’ I said, ‘but why? What does he have against them?’

‘I don’t know,’ replied Mark, ‘But they couldn’t run away if they were stuck up in the wilds of Scotland.’

‘Who’s decision would it have been, to send them up there? I asked.

‘If it was David that raised the alarm, then he would have been in charge of what happened to them.’

‘Is there any way of checking where he is?’ I asked.

Mark clicked through some links and reached the schedule for the Chiltern Camp parish council desk. ‘The office is open as normal so he must be at the Chiltern camp.’ he said, as I sighed in relief.

‘When are they due to leave?’ I asked.

Mark clicked on a link labelled Great Northern ‘See, it’s the train timetable.’ There were very few trains listed, one every couple of days. He clicked on Wednesday and a new window opened ‘and here is the passenger list.’ the list was small, only about twenty passengers. All six of them were listed.

‘That’s only three days away!’ I said in dismay.

He clicked back a couple of times and then opened a new link to a salmon farm. He clicked on a personnel list, at the bottom were the six familiar names with the word ‘pending’ beside them.

I sat back, stunned for a second, we only had a couple of days and then they would be gone. There was no way we would be able to get up to Scotland to rescue them. We needed a plan. I pulled out a road atlas from my bookshelf, if we were going to rescue them, we needed to see exactly where we were going.

‘Have you found Liam or Jack?’ I asked.

‘No,’ said Mark, still intent on the computer.

I found the page for Potters Bar; it was a small town, nearly circular, just off the M25. The south side by the motorway was probably well protected but on the north side there was a large green golf course stretching alongside the railway line.

‘Mark, where exactly is the hostel?’ I asked. There was a pause and a couple of clicks.

‘Ash Park community centre on Mutton Road,’ he pulled up google maps and I watched as he zoomed into Potters Bar.

‘There,’ I pointed at the screen, ‘it’s not bad, next to a primary school and surrounded by playing fields. Those trees along the edge look like they would provide some cover.’

He zoomed out a bit, ‘Looks like warehouses to the north, and… what this?’

‘The railway,’ I replied, and the golf course.’

He zoomed in to Street-View and we saw a big stone building with huge bay windows and a large strong looking door. ‘Hmm,’ I muttered, ‘Not promising.’

‘Do you think they’re being held there all the time?’ It was Freya who had silently drifted back in from Matty’s room without us noticing.

We looked at each other, there was no way to know except by actually being there and watching. Google maps was all very well but it was out of date and wouldn’t show the new fences and security measures.

‘I could go,’ said Freya, ‘sneak in via the golf course, across the streets,’ she indicated the streets she meant on the screen, ‘and then climb a tree. No one would see me.’

I looked at her, it was true, she moved quietly, and I had seen the way she had scaled the fence at the overpass. She was athletic and unobtrusive. And as a girl the soldiers would probably go easy on her, if Mark went it would be a different story, and I wasn’t sure if I was up to scaling trees. I nodded slowly.

‘No way,’ said Mark, ‘you must be insane,’ he looked at us both.

‘Why?’ said Freya, ‘we know the guards probably aren’t that observant.’

‘But…’ said Mark.

We both knew what he wanted to say, but it seemed silly, yes, he was big and strong and used to looking after the others, but Freya was no less capable.

‘I have a good road bike stashed, it’s fast and light, you could be there in just over an hour.’

Freya nodded.

‘Dawn is about half five,’ I said, ‘early morning is a good time, most people are asleep, and the soldiers seem less alert.’

‘But what about meeting people on the way there,’ said Mark, ‘we have no idea how safe it is or if the route is open along the roads.’

‘Okay…’ I said, ‘How about you go with her and…’ I looked at the atlas ‘wait here,’ I indicated a road to the north of the town, ‘there’s a path marked across this field that goes down to the golf course.’

Mark zoomed out on google maps and scrolled the image northward. Then he zoomed in to Street View again. It looked good, a nice open road, and a path that started at a gate beside a large complex of buildings.

‘You just need a bike,’ I said.

‘I think there’s a men’s bike in the shed at our place,’ said Mark, ‘I’ll check it out tonight.’

I left Mark and Freya to plan their route and sort out supplies, and went in to check on Nina and the children.

‘They keep falling asleep,’ she said in a whisper, I looked over at William and Rachel, they looked peaceful, but I knew that what they needed was food.

‘How much of the glucose syrup did they drink?’ I asked.

‘Not much, a couple of sips,’ she replied.

I opened my phone and sat beside her doing more research. ‘Okay,’ I said. ‘We need to get them to drink about 100ml every two hours.’

I went back up into the loft and found my stash of medicines. The surrounding houses had yielded a lot of different pills and liquids, and I had organised them into airtight food containers in a box in the eaves. I rooted around until I found a bottle of Calpol. Inside the box was a syringe. I took it back down and filled it with the glucose syrup. ‘Pick up William’ I said, ‘hold him upright so he swallows.’

Nina picked him up and took the syringe, squirting the liquid quickly into his mouth. Half dribbled out, but he swallowed. She smiled in relief, ‘thanks.’

I sat beside her whilst she fed William and then Rachel, scrolling though articles on my phone. Most info agreed that we would need to switch to something with protein in soon. Special formula milks were used in hospitals, but maybe just normal baby formula would work, I would get Leila and Taz to look out for some.