Read Online Surviving The Evacuation (Book 5): Reunion by Frank Tayell - Free Book Online

little reinforcement of the lie didn’t hurt.
    “Do we wait in case they come back?” Dev asked, his voice an unnecessarily low whisper.
    “N’ah. If they do come back, it’ll be to search for us. That would make staying here a very uncomfortable prospect indeed.”
    “Then we go and join the others?” Dev asked.
    Chester nodded, and watched the relief flood the young man’s face.
     
    “They came?” Mathias asked.
    “But they didn’t stay long,” Dev replied. “Just long enough to go inside and see the place was empty. It was a small van, too. Not enough room for us and the animals. And there were five of them. Five soldiers—”
    “I don’t know that they were soldiers,” Chester said. He was thinking of Cannock, a man who might steal a shilling, but would never take it.
    “But they were armed,” Dev went on. “And… I dunno. It didn’t feel right.”
    There was a moment’s reflection on that.
    “So where do we go from here?” Mathias asked.
    “Nowhere,” McInery said. “But we move that van. It’s as good as a sign post.”
    “And then where?” Hana asked. “I mean, we can’t stay here.” She waved her hands to take in the coffee shop, and the stairs leading down to the platforms.
    “It’ll be safe for today,” Mathias said, “but we need to know about that vaccine, and we need to know about the enclaves and whether they are safe.”
    “How do we do that?” Dev asked.
    “I’ll go out,” Mathias said. “To one of the muster points. That’s where they said they were going to hand out the vaccine. If…” he stopped. “That’s where I’ll go.”
    “And how are you going to get there?” McInery asked. “There’s not enough fuel in those two vehicles to get you to the M25, let alone further.”
    “I’ve… I’ve got a motorbike,” he admitted. “The tank’s nearly full.”
    “You should have said,” Richard’s voice dripped with bitter disappointment at some lie being unmasked.
    “There’s no more than twenty-five litres in the tank,” Mathias said, defensively.
    “Five gallons,” Richard shook his head. “And we spent all those nights trying to syphon the cars.”
    “It doesn’t matter,” Hana cut in. “Not if we don’t have somewhere to go. Where is the bike?”
    “There’s an underground car park beneath the office. I kept it there.”
    “And you can get in? You have keys?”
    “It’s a number pad. As long as the electricity’s on, I can get in.”
    “Then you better get going,” McInery stated loudly.
     
    Chester would have preferred to go himself. If he had, he wasn’t sure he would have come back. His concern was that Mathias might not. If he was picked up, would they ask him questions? Probably. Would he answer them? If it was Cannock asking, then eventually, he would. Chester wished he and McInery hadn’t told them their real names.
    When the man left, Chester, still brooding, hid the van and Land Rover in a nearby alley. He covered them with cardboard and blocked the entrance with an industrial bin. And as he worked, he thought about what Mathias might find and which would be worse; that every single evacuee had been murdered by the government, or that only the batch given to him and McInery had been poisoned.
     
    At six o’clock, and on foot, Mathias returned.
    “Murdered. All dead.” And he told them what he had seen.
    “The government killed off the population in order to stop the disease from spreading. I wouldn’t have done that,” McInery said. Mathias looked at her, quizzically.
    “Were there any cars in that garage?” Chester asked loudly, trying to distract the man.
    “Some, yes. But where would we go?” Mathias turned to Richard. “That’s why I didn’t tell you about the bike. It wasn’t safe to just drive off into the countryside whilst the roads were being patrolled. That holiday home you wanted to go to.” He shook his head. “I doubt you’d have got there. But if you had, you’d still have ended up on