Autumn - Exodus by David Moody

Author:David Moody
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction & Literature
Published: 2023-04-24T00:00:00+00:00

26

DAY ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN

CHRISTMAS DAY

In the three weeks since they’d reclaimed Yaxley, much had been accomplished. Georgie was firmly back into the swing of things, recording important information in meticulous detail: who’d survived, who hadn’t made it, and who remained unaccounted for. She’d found a kindred spirit in Ed, a man whose penchant for minutia and precise record keeping matched her own. People had tried to persuade her it might be time to stop, that they’d reached their final destination and that the details she’d been keeping were no longer necessary, but Ed had urged her to keep going. Previously, Dominic Grove had wanted the information available to help justify his wild utopian daydreams. Ed argued that the future was less of a concern, that the details she’d been keeping would be invaluable to help sustain them in the present. How many mouths they had to feed, how much manpower they had available, who might prove useful now that they could claim some stability. Then the farming to feed the larger group, what crops they’d need to grow, how many animals they should try and keep, how much food they’d need to produce on an ongoing basis... these were the questions that Georgie’s data helped answer.

It was an unexpectedly positive time, though tempered with a pervading sadness that frequently threatened to overtake everything and everyone. This Christmas Day felt like the antithesis of everything Christmas last year had been. ‘It’s not like it was now,’ Selena explained when Ruth questioned her lack of enthusiasm for the holiday season. ‘This time last year I was at home with Mum and Dad. My uncle and aunt came up from Brighton, and Nan came around, and Mum cooked this massive dinner for everyone, and it was amazing. No offence, Ruth, but this ain’t a patch on any of it. I’m just sitting here thinking about everyone I’ve lost, and it hurts. The twenty-fifth of December is just another day now.’

But they tried to celebrate, regardless.

With the contents of the warehouses so accessible, people were tasked with finding a gift for another member of the group, their names picked from a hat. A forced, community-wide, Secret Santa. Selena had written a Christmas list at Vicky’s insistence, though gift-giving felt like hollow and perfunctory gesture, as did claiming material items. Last year she’d asked for money, makeup, and clothes. This year she’d only asked for two things:

1 – body armour

2 – a fucking big knife.

They held a communal Christmas meal in the village hall. A predictably meat-free, hotchpotch affair, Phillipa Rochester had done them proud and had cooked enough to feed twice as many people. Much booze had already been knocked back. Songs had been sung, and it had proved to be an unexpectedly emotional get-together. The word ‘Christmas’ was only occasionally mentioned. It was an opportunity to pause; to look back and to look forward. A chance to take stock.

‘Complements of the season,’ Taylor said, carrying another crate of beer into the hall that he’d procured from the stores.

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