Tony Littlejohns - The Hoffmann Plague

‘I have a feeling that you have good reason to be wary and to carry a sawn-off shotgun?’ said Zoe.

‘Yes;’ Jane replied, ‘several reasons, actually! I may tell you about them sometime, but now probably isn’t the right time.’

‘Oh, God!’ said Matt, ‘I hope we haven’t jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire by coming here! Are things really bad in Bexhill?’

Jane smiled grimly but shook her head. ‘Well, I’d guess things are probably no worse than where you’ve come from. The state the country’s in brings out the best and the worst in people everywhere. There’s no one left here, pretty much; it’s a ghost-town. If there are still other survivors here in town then we haven’t seen them in six months, but we’ve had trouble with people from other areas – and I mean big trouble. It sounds, though, as if you’ve run away from trouble of your own back in Potters Bar.’

‘Yes;’ Zoe replied, ‘there was a bunch of thugs who were lording-it over the few survivors left in our area. They acted like they were now controlling the town, causing lots of problems for people and being threatening whenever they went to get anything. I mean, we’d planned on coming to Bexhill anyway as we wanted to live next to the sea in my cousin’s house. He’d lived here most of his life and I know the area well because of that. We’d planned on moving down in early spring to start planting crops, but things got so bad that we felt we needed to leave right away.’

Zoe hesitated and then started crying. Matt put his arm around her, saying everything would be okay.

‘We had the same sort of thing happen here,’ said Jane. ‘It was in Battle, actually, but it migrated to here.’

Megan looked uncomfortable, moving close to Jane and putting her arm around her. Jane held her and kissed her head.

‘Do you have any weapons?’ Jane asked them, and they shook their heads.

‘Well, I’d suggest you get some fairly soon, just to be on the safe side. We never go anywhere unarmed any more. I can tell you where there’s a gun store on the outskirts of Hastings and give you directions. We’ve taken a lot of weapons from there, but there are still some shotguns left.’

‘I suppose that would make sense,’ said Matt, ‘and they would also be good to have for hunting.’

‘What are you doing for food at the moment?’ Jane asked.

‘The army gave us some tinned and dried food when we left;’ replied Matt, ‘enough for a few days. And we have a fair stock in the van, too. We were just going out to look now, actually. We’ve also seen apple and pear trees around here that still have some fruit on and were going to collect some.’

Jane told them about the warehouse at the back of Sainsbury’s that still had a lot of food in it, as it wouldn’t be fair to keep that knowledge from others who needed food. She also mentioned the other smaller supermarkets nearby where they had broken into the storerooms or warehouses and found more food and drink, as well as Tesco’s. They were both very grateful and thanked her.

They carried on talking for a while: Matt had been an electrical and mechanical engineer most of his life and Zoe was a herbalist and had run her own business. They were looking forward to fishing and growing their own vegetables in their new home. Zoe’s cousin’s house was only half a mile away from the bungalow, in Hartfield Road; the next road along the coast. It had an Aga and a wood-burning stove, a conservatory, and backed onto the beach, as the bungalow did.

Jane said they’d better be going and that it would be nice to meet again soon, once they were settled in. They seemed like a nice couple and their kids were friendly and polite. Jane gave them directions to the gun store and they gave her their address, asking her to come round sometime with Jamie, which she agreed to do. As an afterthought Jane told them that they’d been snaring rabbits on the railway line on-and-off for the last five months and offered them the snares she and Megan had just collected.

‘It’s a bit hit-and-miss, but we’ve had a fair number of rabbits from here in that time. You’ll need to check them every evening and move them to different locations occasionally. The positions are still marked so you’ll know where to set them.’

They were touched and thanked her several times after taking the snares from her. They all shook hands and then Jane and Megan got into the car and drove off. They stopped at the other two locations, removing all the snares and collecting one rabbit from each place. Megan and Jane grinned at each other then headed back to the farm.

When they parked in the yard the left-hand barn’s doors had been removed and they could see Jamie and Bill in there working. They got out of the car and Max ran into the barn to see the two men and to be nosey.

‘Coffee?’ Jane shouted to them and they smiled and nodded.

She and Megan went inside to make drinks. They had decided they would keep the range in the kitchen ticking over during the day for background warmth, and stoke it up in the evenings for cooking and more heat. For small cooking tasks or just for boiling water for drinks they used the wood-gas camping stove and the Kelly Kettle, keeping a supply of small twigs and bits of wood in the kitchen for them. Something Jamie had incorporated into the kitchen was a small canopy, under which these items could be used, so the kitchen didn’t fill with smoke. He had taken a small section of flue out through the wall, to which the canopy was attached. There was a baffle in the top that could be slid over to stop draughts when it wasn’t in use. It worked well unless it was very windy, when sometimes a bit of smoke blew back into the kitchen.

Jane got the kettle going and when it had boiled she made coffee and took mugs out to the men. They were busy cutting both doors in half to make stable doors, where the top half could be opened independently of the bottom. They stopped working and thanked her for the coffee.

‘How did you get on?’ Jamie asked.

‘Okay;’ said Jane, ‘we removed all the snares and picked up two rabbits, which was great. We also refilled all the containers at the bungalow – as many as we could fit in the conservatory.’

Jamie told Bill of their intention to keep up the salt production every few weeks over the winter.

‘Well, it’s a good idea,’ said Bill. ‘We’ve all got a good supply but it will run out sometime, and we’re always going to need it for preserving and cooking.’

Jane then told them about meeting the Turner family and Major Cunningham sending his regards. ‘I couldn’t believe it when he said “ Your name wouldn’t be Jane Roberts, would it?” !’

Bill and Jamie laughed and she related the whole meeting to them, which they found interesting, especially that he was an electrical and mechanical engineer and she was a herbalist.

‘The more people we know with different skills, the better,’ said Jamie, and they both agreed.

Megan came out to join them with a cup of tea and they sat talking for a while before Jamie and Bill got on with their work. Jane said she and Megan would plant the herbs and salads they’d brought with them from the bungalow in what would be their garden behind the house.

First, though, she took the two rabbits over to Emma for the meal that evening. Sarah and Georgie were coming to visit to see their new home and to catch up with them all. Phil and Sophie had been out that morning and shot three pheasants between them, which were prepared and lying on the worktop. Sophie had been practising in recent weeks with one of the smaller 20-bore shotguns they’d picked up from the gun store and was getting on well with it. Jane said she would come over later to help Emma with the meal then she and Megan went back to work in the garden. Sally came round to help and to talk with Megan while they worked.