His wife caught his eye and smiled, pulling the blanket tighter round her shoulders. He smiled back, and then glanced at their other two friends, Andrew and Madeline. Although not as resilient and resourceful as his wife, Madeline was reliable, and as for Andrew, he had complete faith in him as a fellow survivor. Tom felt sure that the four of them, plus the two children, as an extended family unit, had every chance of surviving whatever adversity came their way. He focused his attention on the map again.
“Right, we’re here.” Tom tapped a point south of Chipping Norton. “About thirty kilometres north-west of Oxford.”
“Glad you recced this place, Tom.” Andrew sounded thankful.
“It was always a possibility we’d need somewhere else, but I never thought it would be because someone chose to burn us out.”
“Still, it was a good call.”
“We’re grateful to you, Tom,” added Madeline.
“Where next though?” mused Tom.
“Why not stay here?” Lucy suggested.
“Tempting, but I think it’s too close to Birmingham and Coventry. At some stage, any survivors will start to drift out from the cities as food and other supplies run out. I’d prefer to go south, probably more south-west.”
“Where had you in mind?” asked Andrew.
Patrick came in from the sitting room opposite. “I’m still hungry, Dad.”
“Not now, son,” Andrew responded. “We’ll have a bite to eat before we leave.”
“Are we moving again?” Patrick grumbled.
“It’s necessary. Now, please leave us to get on.”
Shoulders slumped, Patrick left and went back to the other room, closely followed by Sam. Tom patted the collie as he trotted past.
Tom continued. “I was thinking of somewhere around Exmoor National Park. Not in it, but on the outskirts.”
“Wouldn’t we be better off heading north? Scotland, maybe?”
“I’ve considered that, Andy, but discounted it for a number of reasons. First, it’s a long way, and we would be dependent on getting fuel on the way. What we have isn’t enough, even with the jerry cans, to get us that far. Secondly, we’d be on the road for a long time, exposing ourselves to we don’t know what. And I’m a bit worried about the weather. I’m sure it’s going to get a lot colder than it is now, and going north would be inadvisable.”
“How much colder?” asked Madeline.
“I’m not really sure, Maddie. What little reading I’ve done suggests that, with millions of tons of dust being shot up into the atmosphere, sunlight will be blocked for many years to come. Without the heat of the sun, it’s going to get damn cold.”
“Oh no,” she groaned. “It’s bad enough now.”
“It’ll get worse, but we’ll find a way to keep us all warm, angel,” Andrew consoled her.
“That’s why I like the location chosen,” added Tom. “Lots of woods and forests around there. Fuel for heating and cooking.”
“We still need a farm though,” suggested Andrew.
“Or something similar. But what we will need to do is gather the tools to help us grow food.”
“We can still forage for food until then.”
“We can, Maddie, but so will everyone else. Supplies are going to diminish, and it’ll get tougher to find food. We need to start preparing to fend for ourselves.”
“There’s bound to be police and army out there. Didn’t the Government always have emergency stocks of food for situations like this?”
Tom put his arm around Lucy, pulling her slim shoulders close into him. “Could well be. Our planning will be for nothing, and I’ll be the first one to cheer,” laughed Tom. “As we head south-west, we can suss it out. If we come across any administration, we can get an update. OK?”
She placed her head on his shoulder, reassured.
“Really hungry, Mum,” whined Mary, her turn to pressure the parents for something to eat.
“I’ll prepare us some food while you finish planning our journey.”
“OK, love.” Tom squeezed Lucy’s shoulder again, and she got up to prepare a meal.
“Do you want a hand?” asked Maddie.
“No, you’re OK, I’ll manage. Patrick and Mary can help if I need it. Come on then, madam.” She placed an arm around Mary’s shoulder. “Let’s get us all fed.”
“So which way?” asked Andrew, wiping his thick beard with the back of his hand after taking a deep drink of his coffee.
“We go back across the A40, keeping west of Lechlade. Probably best to go via Bibury.”
Andrew pointed to a point on the map. “West makes sense. We have to keep away from Brize Norton here.”
“Probably still heavily contaminated,” Tom agreed. “It’s where next I’m unsure of. We have to avoid the Cleveland Lakes, but traversing right takes us too close to Cirencester, and left we would have to pass between Cricklade and Swindon.”
“Do you think Swindon’s been hit?”
“Bound to. We know there’s some hi-tech industry there, and the Russians would have known that too.”
“But not Cirencester, surely.”
“Possibly. But Gloucester, Oxford and Bristol are bound to have been hit, and hard probably.”
“We could swing west of Cirencester.”
“But that’ll take us closer to Gloucester and Cheltenham.” Tom laughed. “Checkmate then.”
“What are you worried about?” asked Lucy who came back into the room carrying foodstuffs to make some breakfast.
“Contamination, for one. The closer we go to where there’s been a strike, the hotter the contamination will be.”
“And undesirables,” added Andrew. “We’ve seen what the Reynolds family are capable of. There could be far worse out there.”
“Yes,” agreed Tom. “There’ll be people out there sick, injured and hungry. They’ll probably stop at nothing to get what they need.”
“What about the authorities?” exclaimed Madeline. “Law and order will be one of their priorities, surely.”
“We’ve seen no evidence so far,” Tom reminded her. “Both Andrew and I have been out on numerous occasions. When I did a reconnaissance of this place, I only came across a few stragglers, but no police or army.”
“This is the only way we’ll protect ourselves now,” pitched in Andrew, patting the shotgun leaning up against his chair. “If I don’t have that, then this will do,” showing a clenched fist. Andrew was a big man, just short of six foot and with the physique of a heavy weight boxer, something he did a lot of in his younger days. It would be a brave person to take him on. Tom on the other hand, although still fit, spending many hours working his farm, was more slight and a few inches shorter, but would still put up a fight to protect his family.
“Andrew! Don’t be ridiculous. We’re not vigilantes!”
“Hey, hey, Maddie. I’m not advocating that we go out there and clean up the streets. We just need to make sure we protect our own families.” He placed his arm around her shoulder, consoling her as best he could.
“Control will be returned eventually, Maddie,” added Lucy as she placed some plated, sliced corned beef on the table along with some crackers and a tub of home-made butter. “Then we can all go back to our homes and rebuild.”
“Don’t be so sure, Luce. That’s working on the assumption there’s an organisation out there capable of regaining control.”
“Something will happen. It has to, Andrew.”
“Any more of that coffee, Lucy?” asked Tom. “We need to leave within the hour if we’re to get to our next destination in daylight.”