Autumn: Aftermath by Moody David

Author:Moody, David [Moody, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2012-03-13T06:00:00+00:00

28

Harte hardly slept all night. He’d laid awake on a spare sofa bed in one of the caravans, the trailer next to Jackson’s, where Kieran and Jas slept—along with Ainsworth and Field, who’d both moved in after the “accident” with a wastepaper bin, a bottle of booze, and a box of matches which had caused the fire. He’d seen Donna, Cooper, and Richard go into Jackson’s caravan late last night, and they hadn’t yet come out. His restless night had mostly been spent looking out of windows. He watched the caravan next door for a while, then turned the other way to check on the helicopter in the middle of the courtyard, desperate for it not to leave without him.

After tossing and turning restlessly for hours, he finally fell into a relatively deep sleep around four. Noises outside woke him later and he got up with a start. He was out of bed so fast it made him feel nauseous. He pressed his face against the window and saw that there were people gathered around the helicopter. He ran outside, frantically pulling his clothes on as he went.

“Morning,” Richard said casually as Harte blustered toward him, all arms and legs and panic. “All right, are you?”

“Thought I was going to miss my flight,” he answered breathlessly.

“You are,” Cooper said from behind him, startling him. He spun around. Jackson was there too.

“What are you talking about?” he asked. He turned to look at Jackson. “What’s he on about?”

“We were talking in the caravan after the meeting,” Jackson explained. “Some of the things Jas said last night were right. This is a big decision for people to make, and we can’t rush them. Cooper here has kindly agreed to give us all a little more time to make up our minds about what we want to do.”

“We’re flying back to Chadwick this morning,” Cooper began. “We’re going to—”

“I’m coming with you,” Harte interrupted. “You said.”

Cooper shook his head. “We need you here. Look, we need to get back to the marina to let Harry and Michael know what’s going on. In the meantime, you and Jackson will be organizing this end of things, finding out who’s going and who’s staying and getting things packed up.”

“But why me? You don’t need me for that. Anyone could do it.”

“You know the area better than most,” he explained. “You’ve spent a couple of weeks scavenging around Chadwick, and you know where to find the boats we’re planning to take. Your man Driver has agreed to transport everyone, but he needs your help to get there. This is important, Harte.”

Harte just looked at him, feeling deflated and unexpectedly angry.

“This is bullshit,” he spat, turning his ire on Cooper. “I agreed to come back here on the condition you’d get me out again.”

“And that’s still going to happen. It’s just that you’ll be leaving here by bus, not helicopter, that’s all. What difference does it make? We’re going to wait for you in Chadwick until midday tomorrow, so come the end of the week you should still be on Cormansey.

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