Survivor's Eyes

About the Author

Chris Ekral was born in South Wales and spent the first part of his life there, before his family moved to the East of England. The travel bug bit him and he spent time living, and working, in Japan and France, where Survivor’s Eyes was largely written. He currently resides in London.

Dedication

For Dave, Harry and Lilwen

Copyright Information ©

Chris Ekral 2023

The right of Chris Ekral to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781528997850 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781528997867 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2023

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Acknowledgement

I’d like to thank Jim for taking the time to read my draft and inspiring me to see the project through to completion. Equally, I could not have got this book done without the support and input of my mother, D, at every step of the way along my writing journey: thank you. Finally, I’d like to thank M, for always supporting me in everything I do and, above all, for her infinite reserves of patience!

Ship

The explosion woke me as it rattled the ship violently. I scrambled out of bed, deep below deck, shaking my head to try and clear it of sleep and confusion; how could anyone know I was there? I was always so careful, living by night with minimal lighting and heavy curtains and sleeping by day, safely hidden in the living quarters of the vessel.

If someone were to come aboard, they would think the ship empty, such was the level of caution I exercised. The only trace of my presence on the exterior was my fishing nets and even they were carefully draped around the hull so as to look like flotsam, as if they had drifted by chance into their current position, carried on the gentle waves that lapped the yellow sand of the nearby beach.

I clawed my way through the artificial darkness of my bedroom, reaching for a reassuring swig of the wine that was my only companion. I hurriedly thrust back the curtain covering the porthole and winced at the sudden intensity of the bright sunlight as I peered out with my naked eyes.

Once my enhanced vision had adjusted to both the glare and distance, I saw a large, black object whistle rapidly overhead, narrowly missing the main body of the vessel and landing with a huge impact just behind it, rocking the entire structure much more violently than before. It looked, bizarrely, like a cannonball, though I had never seen one in real life, only on film. There was a crumbling, colonial-era fort still standing on a hill, overlooking the harbour where the ship lay, and, judging by its direction and trajectory, I guessed that would be where the attack was coming from.

Sure enough, as I focused on the tower in the distance and gave my vision a brief second to adjust, I could make out a small group of people, near the ancient cannon that had once protected the bay from pirates and other aggressors. I did not need to look too closely, nor for too long, to conclude that they were not the kind of individuals I would ever want to become acquainted with.

If I’d had the time, I might have laughed at the irony of the fort’s guns now being used by murderers and thieves (in other words, modern-day pirates) to attack me (representing, albeit loosely, civilisation). I might even have smiled at the twisted poetry of the situation, but time was not a luxury that I possessed, however, as a new cannonball arced high into the air and spurred me into sudden alert when it punched through the lookout post on the upper deck of my home. I lingered for a few brief seconds more, watching as the human detritus on the ridge staggered around, passing bottles of some no doubt vile liquor in a circle.

Three large, filthy men laughed and lashed out at each other, drunkenly, as they watched a smaller, scrawnier companion struggle to load the cannon from an ancient wooden barrel in front of the gun. He finished and walked unsteadily back to his jeering comrades, one of whom gave him a sudden and vicious blow to the face.

He crumpled to the ground but immediately got up, laughing inanely as he booted his aggressor hard in the groin. The larger man doubled over in pain for a split second before recovering enough to lash out with a powerful kick of his own. Scrawny danced out of the way of the blow but, in his inebriated state, could not maintain his balance and fell onto his backside whilst grinning stupidly at his mates, who clutched their sides in hilarity.

It was high-brow entertainment, to be sure, but as the smaller scumbag composed himself and staggered once more towards the cannon, I remembered that their sport was at the expense of my home and that I needed to get out of there quickly before I, too, became an incidental casualty of their afternoon’s amusement.

My grandfather would always tell me to keep a bag packed ‘just in case’. I used to think that was excessive, a result of growing up in a time when war was still a frequent threat. Since things went south, however, I followed his advice as a strict rule, and it always served me well. I whispered a quick ‘thank you’ to his departed soul as I grabbed my trusty backpack, which I had kept prepared since my arrival, from under the bed.

There was a knife, some food and a change of clothes inside, just the bare essentials necessary to survive, without any space for luxuries. Still, there was no time for self-pity, so I grabbed my pack and a jerrycan full of fresh rainwater, which I collected off the ship’s deck during the frequent rainstorms, and sprinted down below to where my escape craft lay, ready and waiting for such a dark day as this.

Whilst I ran, the floor rumbled violently as yet another cannonball penetrated somewhere above my head with a huge crunch. Their aim was clearly improving, or possibly the alcohol was just starting to wear off.

The ship had, many years before, run aground on the jagged rocks that lined the sea floor along the coast and, thanks to their treachery, there was a large hole torn in the hull, which would serve as a perfect, and discreet, launch area for my escape vessel.

I looked a little suspiciously at the rowing boat rocking, almost nonchalantly, in the shallow water that had flooded the ship’s interior. Boat was a grand word. It was more of a glorified coracle to be honest: a half-rotten, flimsy coracle. Though it had served me well on my desperate escape from the city the previous year, it had lain virtually unused for most of the time since and the gaudy, brown paintwork was visibly flaking in the sea air.

The exposed wood crumbled a little as I placed my hand on the boat’s side to throw in my stuff, then swing my body in. It was most definitely not a pleasure vessel but, as long as it floated and held together long enough to make my escape, it was all I would need.

I grasped the oar firmly in one hand as I unhooked the tether from the rusting, salt-encrusted spike of metal that had held it in place. Then, taking the paddle in both hands, I pushed off from inside the hull and slipped out of the ship on the side facing away from the old fort and its cannon. I immediately proceeded to row as stealthily as possible, whilst also quickly putting distance between myself and the gun. I did not even pause to look back when another loud crash told me that the poor, ailing ship had taken a direct hit.

Keeping at a ninety-degree angle to the hull, I used the iron bulk of the vessel to hide me for as long as possible, before striking out across the open sea to my right, in the direction of a small estuary I sometimes visited. At that point, I hoped that the glare of the midday sun directly behind me, reflecting off both the water and the remaining paint on my boat, would shield me well-enough from any eyes that might stray my way.

My destination was a tiny forest, situated where a small river met the sea in a miniature tidal delta. The fishing was good there and the view inspirational. I had often lingered in that place of an evening, high in a tree, and gazed longingly out across the ocean, my soul aching for the home I knew I would never see again and which probably, in all likelihood, no longer existed.

In all honesty, I did not even know which direction home lay in, but the mind quickly turned to such melancholic musings when alone, nursing a bottle of wine, and to wallow in bittersweet reminiscing rarely needed any more than the slightest of encouragements. Thus, in a strange way, I had always thought of that tiny patch of greenery as a special place. That day, however, it would be my sanctuary, somewhere to lie low while I decided on my next move.

The sand suddenly crunched beneath me and I jumped into the water to pull the boat ashore, covering it urgently with reeds and seaweed to hide my tracks before I climbed the nearest tree. That gave me a great vantage point from where to observe the unfolding tragedy, which I had just so narrowly managed to escape.

Clearly, the ship had broken its back on the reef many, many years ago. It had outlived its usefulness long before the virus struck and had been abandoned by all as a lost cause. Despite this, it had persisted, against all expectations, enduring even the end of the very civilisation that had built it. Eventually, it had provided a refuge for me, a solitary man fleeing the death throes of a culture that he had never felt a part of, never cared for. A man who now mourned that bygone age, as keenly as the loved ones whose bones probably decorated the ground, somewhere in a far-off land.

The ship, like a prize-fighter who refused to be knocked out, could not sink, but this stubborn valour served only to prolong its agony as it was gradually pounded into nothing by the cannon fire, for no other reason than to briefly entertain a few mindless scumbags.

To destroy what others had made, to slaughter and rape those they did not know and to steal what they wanted, that was life for people such as those firing the cannon. They lived like animals, revelling in their atrocities, with no empathy or motive beyond their own immediate gratification. Truly, they exemplified what had become of us, the human race.

I watched, tears stinging my eyes, as their aim improved, and each further direct hit caused the boat to collapse in on itself a little more. Although I felt a deep sense of personal sorrow, I could also see a much bigger, symbolic picture.

To my weary eyes, the ship was a proud monument to the heights reached by the society that created it, which had now vanished. More poetically, I imagined it as a metaphor for civilisation itself. Nature had dealt it a cruel hand and it had foundered on the rocks, a hair’s breadth from the chasm of destruction. Amazingly, it had survived, battered and broken, but still extant, notwithstanding the odds. Yet, despite this miracle, it found itself defenceless against the mindless brutality of those who dreamed only of destruction.

The metaphor, though arguably tenuous, was powerful and what was nothing more than a minor drama became, in my mind, something that resonated much more deeply, much more tragically. I screwed my eyes shut against the sight of the ship burning fiercely as some remaining fuel deep in the hold ignited. A single, futile tear escaped my left eye and trickled down my face, then off my chin, running briefly along the sand in a valiant, but ultimately doomed, attempt to join with the vast expanse of salt water that filled the estuary around me.

I sat still, watching, for a long, long time, until the fire now leaping relentlessly from within the hold completely smothered the vessel in its withering embrace. I imagined the shouts and cries of satisfaction from the scumbags manning the guns, as the last of the ship’s burnt remains folded meekly into the sea.

At last, I decided to leave. I could still smell the smoke on the evening breeze as I retrieved my rowboat and, without looking back, pushed off to head upriver in search of a new place to live, somewhere else to scrape an existence out of a savage new world.

Bag

I stood there, stock-still, enticed by its shine like a magpie eyeing up an empty bottle. Seconds