Bar None by Tim Lebbon

Author:Tim Lebbon [Lebbon, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 1-59780-097-X
Publisher: Night Shade
Published: 2009-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

"We've been here about six months," Billy says ten minutes later. They've stopped the bus and led us behind it, into a compound formed beside the road. It has the pick-up truck on one side, a dozen sand-filled barrels forming another wall, and a heavy steel storage container closes it off from the road. It's in the container that they have made their home. Billy will not let us inside.

The bus driver turns out to be a girl of about seven or eight. She doesn't speak. Lucy says she has not spoken since they found her, days after the end, cowering in the middle of the motorway beside the bodies of her parents.

"Why not a house somewhere?" Cordell asks.

Billy nods at the bus. "We have that. We travel around quite a bit, looking for stuff. But back here feels safe. And we're waiting for someone."

"Who?"

"My son," Billy says.

"And my daughter," Lucy adds.

"Why wait here?" I ask.

"Last time I spoke to him, when the plagues were hot, Nathan said he'd try to make it here," Billy says. "It's on the way to London. Where my parents live. Nathan loves his grandparents. And I can't . . . I can't remember him. So he must still be alive."

"So how do you work that one out?" the Irishman says.

Billy glares at him. "If he was dead, he'd be alive in my memories."

The Irishman nods, but thankfully he realises it's best not to probe any more.

The little girl is sitting on a sand barrel, looking the other way.

"So you've set up a toll road," I say.

Billy nods.

"Many takers?" Jessica asks.

Billy's face darkens and he turns away. He seems to be staring at the ambulance.

"We'll give you some food," I say. "And we have a few bottles of wine to spare. But . . ."

"We can't go into Newport," Lucy says, pre-empting my question. "No way. Can't. Wouldn't. And most of the houses in the countryside seem to be occupied by. .. the dead. A lot of people out here went home to die."

"But all the cars on the road?" Jessica says.

"People fleeing the city. And that's why we can't go in."

"I locked them in the ambulance," Billy says suddenly. "There were only two of them. But they were . . . well, you know. I can see you know. Even after we shot them we knew they'd be up, so I dragged them into the ambulance and parked it there."

"We did it," Lucy says.

Cordell goes to speak but I shake my head. There is much more here than we know, but to reveal our ignorance would lose us any small advantage we may have. Billy's gun is pointing at the ground, but he still grasps it tight. It would be foolish for us to assume that we are anything more than prisoners.

"Why don't you burn it?" I ask, trying to get Billy to reveal more.

He grins at me. Shakes his head. "Very good," he says. "But no. Because now I've got my own weapons of mass destruction.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.