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belongings and said he’d show us where we would be able to find other stuff. He reminded us that we were on board a Royal Navy vessel and as such a lot of areas would be out of bounds to us.
    He showed us to the mess hall. Apparently there were several mess halls on the ship which had been set up to cater for the influx of people now aboard. This was the one that we had to use though. We were given strict meal times by the cook on Duty and basically told if we missed the time slot, we missed out on our meal. We were shown to the laundry and told we were responsible for our own bedding and clothing and were given some basic bedding which was now ours to look after. There was a gymnasium that we had access to, nothing fancy and there was also a small outside space on the side of the ship, it was about half way up the ship and with locked gates at either side. It was probably a strip about 30 foot long and ten foot wide, but it was outside and we could see the sea. There were no chairs or anything, just the empty space. And that was all we had access too. There were many other doors, but they were all locked and had AUTHORISED ACCESS ONLY signs on them. The ones without the signs were other quarters.
    We spent the rest of the day cleaning and sorting out our quarters before going for our scheduled meal at six O’clock, or eighteen hundred hours as the Navy liked to say. The mess hall was big enough to seat around thirty people. There was a mixture of men and women in Navy uniform, all uncommissioned ranks, but all petty officer rank and above. There were a couple of Sashes also sitting with what must have been their families and that was it.
    We collected our meals from a service counter, there was no choice. Fish and rice and some tinned fruit. We sat on a table next to one of the Sashes and their family. I introduced myself and my family. The Sash introduced himself as Gavin, his partner Lia and their two children Holly and Michael. We got chatting and I asked what the Sashes were all about. He explained that the Navy had lost that many personnel that they’d had to make the decision to recruit civilian volunteers. The volunteers were mainly from family of existing personnel that were on board or trusted people with a skill that was useful to them.
    Gavin had been a dentist and Lia a dental nurse at a dental practice in Ivybridge. They had gone with their family to one of the safe zones in Portsmouth in the early days of the outbreak and had been quickly recruited once the Navy had discovered their skills. He also explained that the Somerset had left the safe zone about six months ago after no new survivors had turned up for well over a month and supplies were starting to run low. They had all been assigned quarters from day one and he had had limited access to other parts of the ship. He reported for duty each morning and spent most of his days in the medical bay doing various things, not many of which were dentistry.
    I asked him about the other survivors and other parts of the ship. He went a little sheepish and started to talk quitter as if people were listening to us. He did say that he’d heard rumours of overcrowding and disease in some areas of the ship, but had never witnessed anything outside of his access zone, so it was what it was, rumours. I made a mental note to ask Keith about the rest of the ship the next time I saw him.
    We finished our meals and headed outside for a while so the children could have a bit of a run around and a bit play. I couldn’t help but think what the future held for them and what kind of world they were going to grow up in, but I was going to do my best to make it the best life I could for them.
    Gav had said that they got the occasional contraband working in the medical bay from some of the new comers and had a nice bottle of single malt he’d been saving if I fancied popping around to their quarters later for a quite drink.
    To be honest, I just wanted to get the kids to sleep