Interrupted Journey

Chapter 3 - Preperation

Over breakfast, they started planning.

The first problem was, obviously, going to be getting out of town. They would need huge loads to get anywhere near the farm but anyone moving with a large rucksack on their backs would be marking themselves out as a target.

They decided it would be safest to move just before dawn. As Elizabeth put it, by then, all self-respecting criminals and low lives should be tucked up in their beds.

It was David who had the idea of using the canal towpath. One of the family's standard 'Sunday afternoon walks' when the children had been younger, involved cutting across a local park to the canal and he had often wondered where he would end up if he just kept walking.

The other question was how to carry everything they needed for two weeks. They could not rely on finding any food along the way. After a couple of minutes' discussion, Andrew went into the garage and set about converting an expensive golf trolley into a high tech travois. Fortunately, he was still enough of a farm boy to have the hand tools and, more importantly, the knowledge, to make a reasonable job of it. After a few minutes, he was joined by David who made himself surprisingly useful.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth and Martin began to search the kitchen for transportable food, which they piled on the dining room table. They also began cooking up batches of a thick stew that they would be able to take with them and eat cold, if necessary.

After about two hours, Andrew came into the kitchen to find Elizabeth almost in tears as she tried to stuff an entirely unsuitable sleeping bag into Martin's school backpack. He walked over and put his arm round her shoulders.

"I know it's not the real problem but what's the problem?" he asked, sitting her at the kitchen table.

"I thought it would be a good idea if everybody had their own pack," she explained, "We've got our old backpacking stuff." In their early days Andrew and Elizabeth had gone on several backpacking holidays together, "and I was trying to get something sorted out for David and Martin but it's just not working."

He sat down opposite her and thought for a while. Suddenly he exploded, "Mary's Bob!"

"Who?"

"The present that Mary gave us that last Christmas," he explained. "She called it a 'bug out bag'."

"I thought you got rid of it!"

"I couldn't... not after she died... and she specifically asked me to keep hold of it... I just stuffed it up in the attic."

"Well go and unstuff it straight away!" she said, wiping her eyes on a piece of kitchen roll that David had brought for her.

The expedition up into the attic was slightly challenging because, of course, there was no light. In the end Andrew had to ask David to hold a candle while he hunted round behind boxes of old clothes and Christmas decorations.

He found the cling-film wrapped package hidden behind some boxes of books and passed it down. After some more hunting, he found his ancient, battered rucksack which was huge by modern lightweight standards. It was full of old hiking clothes and boots so he passed that down too. As he was hauling that out, he was hit sharply on the leg by a walking staff that he had bought himself when on holiday in Austria. While not obviously an offensive weapon, it was a solid, five foot long lump of chestnut wood. He passed this down too.

They gathered in the lounge and, as the boys started to unwrap the two plastic wrapped parcels, a letter fell out. David passed it to his father who read it to the others.

"Dear Andy, I hope you never need to read this letter.

"These are 'Bug out Bags'. One each for you and Elizabeth. They are designed to get the four of you out of London and moving towards the farm.