The Legend of Dark City

Chapter 43

Travel had been risky but as the years had passed it had become less so. They had become aware of a large settlement near the sea on the coast where the plague had started. Both Napier and Bree had been brought up in seaside towns and they were keen to be on the first trading mission. They were taking the three children who would have a chance to see the beach. Bree was hoping that they would be able to eat fish and chips whilst looking at the sea.

On the journey the main topic of conversation was fish and seafood. The younger ones in the trading group could not remember the taste of cod or plaice and had never tasted cockles or mussels. The older ones were reminiscing about the things they had eaten before the plague. The talk moved on to exotic fruits and delicacies which they had not seen for many years. All of them agreed that they desperately missed a good curry.

The members of the ragtag army were getting older but there had been plenty of volunteers to enlist and replenish their numbers. Captain Armitage was with Bree and Napier on this trip. He had become an unofficial grandfather for their three children Victoria, Baron and Esther. Sam was their other granddad. He carried a gun inside his coat and remained vigilant on the journey. He would always see himself as a military man.

The settlers on the coast welcomed the traders and took them straight to a place where they could eat. Large slabs of fried fish were put in front of the salivating travellers. All the visitors to the settlement had arrived craving fish and the offering was now part of their ritual. They assured Bree that they had cured and smoked fish that they could take back with them to their own community.

The children were stunned by their first sight of the sea. Its vastness and the rolling waves were both beautiful and terrifying. They had led such insular lives and the beach and water which stretched before them gave a small idea of just how big the world was. They had travelled in summer and Bree encouraged them down to the water's edge to paddle. The kids screamed at the cold but it did not put them off as they splashed and ran in the surf.

One of the coastal settlers had supplied an old castle shaped bucket and Napier was now instructing the youngsters in the ancient art of sandcastle building. It was a joyous day on the beach which echoed the times that both Napier and Bree had played in the same way when they were young. They all had a very good night's sleep.

Boats were used mainly for fishing but some more adventurous sailors had crossed what had been one of the busiest waterways in the world and landed in France. They had made short forays inland and had encountered survivors on the other side of the channel. Everyone knew that there ought to be people all across the world but it was nice to have actual proof.

At some point people would make the journey to America and expeditions would set out for all the corners of the world. They knew where everything was but there was still a spirit of discovery because they did not know what they would find when they got there. It would be fascinating to see the skyscrapers in New York which now probably rose out of undergrowth and forest.

Those sights would be seen by the younger generations. Bree and Napier had a successful settlement to run and children to rear. They would make a stable base from which youth could undertake journeys and explore the country and then the world. It was exciting and it was terrifying imagining the things they would see and the risks they would take.

Part of Napier wished he was young enough to be at the forefront of these new thrilling times. He had done his bit though. He had set up two successful communities and now had a wife, there had been no official ceremony but that is what Bree was, and children. The larger part of him was content with what he had accomplished.

Bree sat with Esther on her lap as she told her children a story about a theme park that she had been to as a girl. The kids were open mouthed with awe at the tales of machines that would spin you round and round or take you high in the air then rush you down again. They had makeshift swings and a seesaw but these rides must have been much more exciting.

She reflected on her childhood and thought of the mobile phones and the tablet computers. As a twelve year old, Bree would have been horrified to be told she would live without them for the rest of her life. Her children would run around the fields and paddle in the stream and weren't addicted to sugary drinks and sweets. They risked getting infections from cuts and minor illnesses could be far more serious now, but on the whole, they had a good life.

The Seaside plague had taken a terrible toll on the population of the world. There had been a time when those that had survived feared for the future of mankind, but those worries were now receding. The plague had given the people and the planet a chance to start over and hopefully make a better job of it second time around.

The end.