Free Zombielandia by Lee Wade Page B

wasn’t ready to say goodbye to him yet. We had had to drag her physically onto the Gamebird and Hayley had done her best to comfort her.
    We heard the odd shot being fired in the distance ahead of us. The radio message came through from Sandie to tell us that it was nothing to worry about, they had just been taking out any rotters they’d disturbed so we didn’t have to encounter them.
    We didn’t go far, just a mile or so and then we had moored up for the night. Lia, Sandie and the kids joined us on the Hue. It was a bit of a squash, but we coped. We arranged for two people to keep watch throughout the night as we were still nervous about what had happened back at Dalmuir. We kept the lights and stoves off that night and just ate cold food straight out of the cans. We hadn’t moved that far from Dalmuir and couldn’t take the risk of going through Clydebank at night, so tried to stay as inconspicuous as possible. David and Becky took first watch.
    Chapter Forty
    Lia told us about what had happened after we had left the Somerset. Apparently there was so much going on with boats being sent all over on scouting missions and so on that no one had even noticed us missing and had just assumed the two boats had been compromised.
    When they had neared Faslane the scout ships had discovered utter chaos and despair. They had learned that the Royal Navy had used it as a safe zone early on in the outbreak, but had long since abandoned it, the same as they had done in Portsmouth. However, survivors had continued to arrive, only to find there was no sanctuary. The base had been secured from the rotters and the people that were left there had been doing their best to survive, but basically it had been anarchy with constant in fighting, with different groups trying to take control of the base. Some of the groups had managed to take control of some of the scout ships and had headed to the Somerset, intent on taking it for themselves. They had however been way outnumbered and out gunned, so the Navy had had no problems taking their boats back again. The Navy commanders had made the decision not to dock in Faslane and to leave the people there to their own devices and had turned around. Gav and Lia had decided at this point that they regretted the decision to stay and had managed to get to shore with the aid of Sandie amongst the chaos. Sandie had been disgusted with the treatment of some of the survivors aboard the Somerset, so had only been too happy to help Lia and Gav out.
    They had managed to get to Bowling the morning after we had left, but didn’t know how to operate the locks, so had gone in search of alternative transport. This is when they had been outnumbered by the rotters of Bowling and Gav had been bitten. They had managed to escape in the Jeep they had acquired from one of the garages in Bowling and had come after us down the canals tow paths which run alongside it. Gav had died not long after from his injuries and it hadn’t been long after that when he’d turned. I’d already taken his gun, Lia said, so I used it as soon as he died. It was the least I could do for him. We burned him at the side of the lock, Michael was too young to understand, but Holly was taking it bad, she had been close to her Dad. I just hoped that Emily would never have to go through the same thing.
    She had said that my brother had been on one of the scout boats that had went to Faslane. Apparently he had volunteered as he was desperate to find out if his family were there as this was the last place he had known that they were heading for. Had their ship turned around the same as the Somerset had, I guessed that he needed to find that out. Lia did say that his boat had been one of the one’s that hadn’t returned before they had left. So this may have meant that it hadn’t been captured, but also that he could have returned to the Somerset after Lia and Gav had left. So basically I had been none the wiser as to where he was and could only