Survivors

After their oh so joyful encounter with Darius they went back to their tent in silence. Joe threw himself down on his bed and stared at the roof.

“What should we do?” asked Holly.

“What do you mean?” said Joe

“I mean what are we going to do about the trouble we’ve caused”

“What can we do?” snapped Luke.

“I don’t know” replied Holly defensively. There was a long pause then she said “Couldn’t we get the card back?”

“Are you mad” said Luke jumping to his feet. “That is the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard! Do you really think the Aliens would have just left the card sitting there in the lock waiting for someone to come back and get it. Of all the –“

“Leave her alone” said Joe sitting up “She was only trying to -”

“Trying to what? Get us into a whole load more of trouble or get us all killed. I’m sick of it, sick of it, we always getting blamed for everything! We’re always getting into trouble!! Everyone’s always telling us what to do!!! I’m sick of it!!!! I don’t know why we don’t just..”

“Go somewhere else?”

They spun towards the tent flap to see a very large dark skinned woman with shaggy dreadlocked hair pushing her way into the tent. She looked at them for a few moments and then grinned. Her grin was a bit like a badly maintained graveyard, it looked like it was made up of a whole load of nastily discoloured, jagged and broken headstones sticking out at all sorts of funny angles. This was Mamma. Everyone called her Mamma regardless of how old they were because basically Mamma mothered everyone. She did, it was true, specifically mother the kids, whenever she was able to catch them.

None of them knew what had happened to their real parents in the first days of the invasion, so in many ways Darius and Mamma had filled the traditional parenting roles, if not in the traditional parenting way.

“Now why would you be wanting to leave us?” she asked.

“Because we..” Began Holly

“Holly!” Said Luke with the very clear message of “Shut the hell up!” in his tone.

They all fell silent for a few seconds.

“Oh I see” said Mamma knowingly “Secrets! That’s okay” She held her finger up to her lips “We’ve all got secrets. In fact I’ve got one her hiding in my bag right now. Let’s see what do I have here?”

She reached into her bag and pulled out half a loaf of the hard black bread she cooked whenever she managed to get some flour. It was as chewy as hell, and as tough as old boots but it was pretty damn tasty and filled you up like nothing else in the camp. She quickly tore it into three lumps and handed them out. The three of them greedily chewed on the bread suddenly realising how hungry they were. Mamma sat and patiently watched them eating for a while, enjoying their enjoyment.

There were about twenty other people in the camp. They were all really different and then again they were all pretty much the same. In happier times i.e. Before the Aliens, the camp would probably have been called a commune or a hippy camp. Everyone in the camp, deep down, had everybody else’s best interests at heart. There was a lot of “love” in the camp, a lot of oneness, a lot of being close to nature and almost total vegetarianism. The “close to nature” and “vegetarianism” weren’t really a choice, due to the simple fact that there was practically no meat and they lived in a forest!

All the little groups of survivors tended to take on the personalities of the strongest people in them. Some were aggressive and pumped full of testosterone. Some were full of drunks and despair and others were full of fear and suspicion. So a camp that revolved around love and a bit a tree hugging from time to time, was probably the best place they could have ended up.

Luke and Joe had been brought into the camp as small boys by The Dane. The Dane was a huge silent man who wasn’t Danish at all. He’d been called The Dane because he had long blonde hair and a big shaggy beard a bit like a Viking, but that was where any association with Denmark ended. The Dane, didn’t speak very much, or very often, but he had told the boys roughly where in the city he’d found them and what they had been carrying when he did, but that was about it. The boys had been back a few times to see if they could find any clues to who their parents were, or whether they were still alive but had always found nothing.

Holly had been found by Old Mrs Twitch hiding in a twisted broken bus shelter. Mrs Twitch had only survived a year or so of camp life before she died from a mixture of old age and harsh outdoor living. Holly had been too young to ask Mrs Twitch any sensible questions about where the bus shelter was in town or if there was anything, anything at all that could help her find her family. Even though the boys often felt lonely at least they had each other and a few clues about who they were, Holly had absolutely nothing and nobody. That was probably why she stuck so close to Luke and Joe, the three of them at least had a joint identity, a sense of belonging, even if it was only to each other.

The other constant in their lives since they arrived at the camp had been Mamma. She was big, homely and had always been ready with a good bear like cuddle whenever they needed it. Joe and Holly still occasionally and openly sought and enjoyed a good “Mamma Hug” as they called it. Luke on the other hand never actively approached Mamma for a hug any more, but if she ever managed to surprise him and grab him in her bear like embrace he never struggled too much to escape.

“So” she said “Anyone need a Mamma Hug?”

Joe and Holly rushed towards her and buried themselves in the various folds of clothing, hair and flesh. No matter what she had been doing Mamma always seemed to feel comfortingly warm and smell like sweet biscuit. Mamma cuddled away making small cooing noises. She looked up at Luke and stared deep into his eyes. She raised her eyebrows and Luke knew exactly what she meant. “Are you okay?”

He nodded slightly and as he did he realised his eyes were filling up with tears. All the fear, frustration and shame of the day suddenly overwhelmed him. He rushed forward, threw his arms round Mamma and the others and sobbed and sobbed.