back, to get some alternative transport and take the pressure off Richard here.”
“Sounds good.”
“Just wait,” Jas said, his voice louder and more forceful this time. “You can’t make a blanket decision on behalf of all the people here, not without consulting them and not without thinking it through. There might be some who don’t want to go to an island. Not sure I do, if I’m honest. It sounds a little risky to me, a little cut off and exposed.”
“It’s not perfect,” Cooper admitted, “but I’ve yet to find a better place. As good as this castle looks to have been for you all, I think the island is better. You’ve still not got your freedom here.”
“Doesn’t matter if we’re surrounded by sea of dead flesh or by the ocean itself, sounds to me like we’re all still prisoners.”
“Jas is right about one thing,” Jackson said. “I was wrong to assume. Everyone has the right to make their own choices. We’ll get everybody together and give them the options. We’re talking about decisions which will affect the rest of everybody’s lives.”
26
“Harte? Harte, is that you?”
The voice caught him by surprise. He didn’t think anyone else was out here. He’d been sitting in a quiet corner where he could see the helicopter, not wanting to stray too far in case Cooper and the others upped and left without him.
“Lorna?”
He got up and walked over to her. It was getting dark, and he followed the noise her boots made crunching through the gravel. When he saw her he grabbed hold of her and held her tight. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed her. She led him over toward the row of caravans and sat down with him on a pile of discarded wooden pallets. In the light coming from the window of the nearest caravan, he thought she looked tired, old even. Her face appeared angular and stark in the gloom and her hair was scraped back. She looked pensive, and it was out of character from the Lorna he remembered. Previously she’d always seemed relaxed and comfortable in herself, regardless of how bad everything else was around her.
“I looked for you earlier,” Harte said. “You okay?”
“Fine,” she replied, sounding less than convinced. “I was working. I’m on my break right now.”
“On your break? From what?”
“Cooking rota.”
“You on a cooking rota! Bloody hell, Lor!”
“It’s not funny.”
“I didn’t say it was. Just a surprise, that’s all.”
“Tell me about it.”
“So Jackson’s cracking the whip around here now is he?”
“Jackson and Jas. I swear, they’re like a double act sometimes.”
“Good cop, bad cop.”
“Bad cop, worse cop.”
“Well, all that might be about to change. You’ve heard about the island.”
“I’ve heard rumblings. You don’t tend to hear much news in the kitchen, not that there’s usually any news to hear.”
“Are things really that bad?”
“No, I’m making it sound worse than it is. But I can see things going downhill if we’re not careful. The fewer people there are left, the more narrow-minded some of them seem to be becoming. I swear, it’s like we’ve gone back fifty years. Sexual equality and all that stuff’s a thing of the past now.”
“It must be grim if they’ve got you cooking.”
“Cheeky bastard. You’re right, though. Us
“So most of the work is down to you.”
“Pretty much.”
“What about Melanie? She still here?”
“Oh, she’s here all right. Dirty bitch.”
“That’s a bit harsh.”
“Is it? Dirty cow’s just a communal fuck-buddy. Whenever she wants anything she just flashes her tits and flutters her eyelids at one of the blokes and they cover for her.”
“You could try that.”
“You could fuck off! I’ve got more self-respect. Anyway, I’d destroy the piss-poor men here. I’d eat you alive for starters.”
“Look, I’m not arguing. I know you would!” He paused, then asked her if she was going to leave for the island.
“I’m planning to,” she answered quietly. “I don’t like the way things are going here.”
“Why? What’s happened?”
“Ah, it’s just all the usual bollocks you get when there are too many dumb blokes stuck in the same place together with limited options. They stop thinking sensibly and spend all their time playing bloody stupid mind games with each other.”
“Jas and Jackson?”
“Jackson tries to keep Jas in check, but from where I’m sitting it looks like Jas is the one with more influence these days. You’ve heard about Howard, haven’t you?”
“I haven’t heard anything. Haven’t seen much of him, come to that. I tried to talk to him earlier, but he was in a right fucking foul mood.”
“He lost his dog last week.”
“Shit. What happened? Did it get sick or…?”
“Mark Ainsworth happened. Apparently Jas had said something to him about Dog using up food which was meant for us. So Ainsworth threw the dog out. Middle of the night he just opened the gates and kicked the poor little bastard out. Howard was in bits, and they wouldn’t let him out to look for her.”
“Fuck me.”
“And that’s not the worst of it.”
“There’s worse?”
“Hollis.”
“Yeah, where is he? I was looking for him…”
“Gone,” she said, sounding subdued.
“Gone where?”
“No idehey kicked him out too.”
“Why?”
“Were you here when he had that accident?”
“The shit pit? When he busted Steve Morecombe’s arm up? That’s a point, I haven’t seen Steve either.”
“You wouldn’t have. He’s dead.”
“Dead? How?”
“How d’you think? His broken arm got infected. Sue’s supposed to be a nurse, but if you need anything more than a fucking headache tablet, she’s next to useless. I swear, it was like when Ellie and Anita died. All we could do was watch the poor sod fade away. Happened last week. Fucking horrible, it was.”
“But Hollis … it was just an accident. It wasn’t like he meant to do it.”
“I know, but you know what he’s like. He takes it all so personally. The toilets hadn’t been emptied, so he went back again to sort them out. Jas caught him on the digger and they ended up fighting. He practically threw
