Surviving The Evacuation (Book 6): Harvest Read Online Free PDF Page B

planes will still be there?”
    “Yes, why?” Chester asked.
    “Because I think McInery’s right,” Jay said. “If we’re going to make the Tower work, we need small boats, lots of them, and I think we’ll find those boats at the airport.”
    “Well,” Chester mused, “I suppose there might be one or two left in the marina that surrounded the runway, but I doubt it. The story everywhere, and not just in the UK, but from all those people who made it to Anglesey, they all said that anything that could float was taken out to sea regardless of whether the engines worked or anyone on board knew how to furl a sail. I’d say our best bet for finding a ship would be in the Maritime Museum at Greenwich. I think they had a couple of whaling boats there. Wooden, of course, and a bit bigger than this craft, with a single sail, and which could be rowed by a crew of four. Or was it six? Actually, thinking about it, I’m not sure that was in Greenwich.”
    “N’ah,” Jay said with a grin. “We don’t want a museum relic that’ll dissolve if it comes in contact with water. We want something modern, something that won’t rip or tear, and which doesn’t need diesel. We’ll find it at the airport.”
    “How can you be so sure?” Nilda asked.
    “There was a movie where a plane crashed onto the water and the passengers all—”
    “Life rafts!” Nilda exclaimed. “Cruise ships have lifeboats. Planes have life rafts. If the airport is full of crashed planes, then it’s also full of rafts. We’ve just got to pull them out.”
    “That’s actually a good idea,” Chester said. “For going up and down the river they’ll be cumbersome, but for getting over the jagged masonry around the bridges, they’ll be perfect. That material’s got to be rip proof.”
    “It is?” Nilda asked.
    “Well, I’m only guessing—”
    “Tuck says it is,” Jay cut in. “And there might be food, too, you know. Peanuts and stuff.”
    “That’s what you think is it?” Chester asked the soldier.
    “No, it’s what I think,” Jay said. “But it’s worth looking.”
     
    “What’s that?” Jay asked, pointing ahead of the boat.
    “The Thames Barrier,” Chester said wearily. He’d started out as a cheerful tour guide, but Jay had been interrogating him incessantly as they travelled down the river. The man’s tone was now one of resigned exasperation. Tuck met Nilda’s eyes, nodded at Jay, and rolled her own. Nilda took that to mean the soldier was grateful that Jay’s barrage of questions was finally being directed at someone else.
    “Okay. So what is it?” Jay asked.
    “It was designed to stop London from flooding. But the barrier’s down, so the city, or parts of it, will flood,” Chester said.
    “You mean like the Tower?”
    “I doubt it. They started building that fortress nearly a thousand years ago, so I think it’s safe enough. But London used to be full of rivers, little tributaries that all fed the Thames. Those rivers became canals or sewers. The land around and above them became houses and offices. The river will a find a new course, basements will flood, buildings will collapse, and roads will be washed away. Soon, each time we come along the river, the skyline will be changed. The airport’s over there, on your left,” he added.
    “Where? I can’t see it,” Jay said.
    “No, there’s a housing estate between us and it.”
    “And what’s that?” Jay asked. Nilda had to smile.
    “What?” Chester asked.
    “Those chimneys.” Jay pointed.
    “The Tate and Lyle sugar factory,” Chester said.
    “They made sugar? Really?” Curiosity was now replaced by excitement. “Shouldn’t we check it out?”
    “They didn’t make sugar, they refined it,” Nilda said. “Without the boats coming in, there’ll be no canes to process. Any that was stored there would have been used up during the rationing. Look at those tower blocks near the factory. Think of all the people who lived there, and then