Chapter 7: Change Must Come Through the Barrel of a Gun
When Ella and Sofia arrived back at the farm, it had just passed noon. Alex was standing outside the door of what had been their home for a week, smoking slowly. Inside, Zack and George were finalising lunch, while Danielle lay on the sofa, nearing the conclusion of Jane Eyre. The child was resting his head on her thigh - still and breathing rhythmically, but with his eyes open, vacant and staring.
When Ella passed Alex, she tossed him two packets of cigarettes - the only thing she was successful in acquiring from the shop. He gave a thumbs up and a smile.
As they entered the living room, Alex followed them. Both Sofia and Ella felt the burning pressure of eight expectant and hopeful eyes staring up at them. Eight eyes swiftly fell to disappointment as they saw the rucksacks the pair were carrying remained limp and unfilled. Eight eyes turned to shock as they saw the blood that covered Ella and Sofia and had stained their skin.
Sofia and Ella asked if they could wash and eat before they told their story. The seven ate quickly and in silence. Danielle took their bowls into the kitchen and then stood in the doorway in anticipation. Sofia led the explanation with Ella filling the gaps. After they had finished their story, they looked around the room and saw furrowed brows all round - except for the child. Alex was the first to speak.
“I think we should go for it.” The certainty came as a surprise and the group turned towards him.
“Look, what do we have to lose? We started out on this because we wanted somewhere safe. Sure, we had somewhere else in mind - but that somewhere else is a lot, lot further away than this new place. What if we can find that safety there instead?” There were some cautious nods from around the room. George looked the least convinced but remained silent.
“What if it’s a trap? What if this guy is just trying to lure us there?” Zack asked.
“I didn’t get any indication he was dishonest. His story added up. He was outnumbered in the village, but if he wanted to do us harm, he could have followed us here - he could have sent others to find us,” Sofia reassured him. Zack nodded.
After a few more minutes of deliberation, the seven came to the conclusion that they would meet Darren at nine the following morning and see whether this group was somewhere they wanted to stay. Everyone seemed content with this - except George, who was quiet and appeared sceptical, and the child who gave no indication that he had any comprehension of what had been decided.
The rest of the day was spent packing rucksacks and preparing for their departure. In their week’s stay, they had managed to wash and dry most of their clothes, a luxury that had been rarely afforded to them. As evening arrived, the seven sat out on the grass in front of the house one final time. After eating, all seven of them were laid on their backs, heads facing up towards the reddening sky. Danielle watched the clouds creep westwards. Alex and Ella were expertly blowing smoke rings up to join them.
They returned indoors before dusk fell to finalise their packing and prepare themselves for the following day. Ella collected the fourth box from the bathroom. Zack and Sofia took as many tins as they could. Danielle returned to the attic three of the books from her initial pile, and squeezed a further two into her rucksack. When she came into her bedroom, she found George sat upright on his bed and, even with the limited light, she could see his whole body outside of the covers.
“Everything okay?” Danielle asked casually. George didn’t reply so she pressed him again.
“I don’t want to leave,” he replied. Danielle sat on the end of the bed at his feet.
“Oh… why not? You didn’t say anything earlier.”
“I didn’t say anything because I’m never listened to,” he replied bitterly. “I’m scared Danielle. I’m really scared. And I know you all never listen to me because I’m just a kid.”
“Oh George! We’re all scared. All of us are. But we’re safe because we’ve got each other. Think about it - think how long we’ve been travelling and all of us are still standing? It’s not nice. It’s not easy. But we’re all here, and we look after each other.” She put her hand on his knee.
“Now look, I don’t ever want you to feel that you aren’t listened to. You’re just as much a part of this group as all of us. So, if you aren’t happy with something, you say, okay?”
George’s face was sad, and he didn’t seem convinced, but he nodded anyway.
“Thanks Danielle. Goodnight.” George shuffled himself underneath his duvet and lay on his side. Danielle walked to the sofa, tucked the child in and then put herself to bed.
None of them would admit it, but all except the child’s sleep was broken and strained that night. Despite the near unanimity of their decision, their failure to slip into sleep with ease illustrated it was a decision they weren’t wholly comfortable with.
Early the next morning, the seven were assembled in the living room, groggy but alert. Their rucksacks were tightly packed and piled near to the front door. The air that circulated between them was rich with anxiety and restlessness. They departed earlier than needed, the sun beaming a comforting warmth onto their otherwise chilled morning skin.
They arrived at the crossroads and rested the rucksacks on the curb. Sofia and Ella sat where they had a day earlier, this time with the child next to them. Zack and Alex had clocked the bloody footprints coming out of the shop and turned their backs to them. Danielle and George were in the middle of the road, playing catch with stones.
Having left earlier than they needed to, the wait was long. After 10 minutes had passed, Sofia stood up and began pacing back and forth. Having braved going into the shop and collecting another handful of cigarette packs, Alex began chain smoking with Ella on the curb. Zack was still.
After a further, painful half hour, Zack saw two figures come into view far down the road. He stood upright and squinted.
“Why are there two of them?” he queried, aloud. Sofia looked too - she couldn’t make out what they looked like, but she could see there were definitely two people walking up the road. Danielle and George had stopped their game and joined the others lined up on the curb. As the two figures drew closer, Ella and Sofia confirmed to the others that the one on the left was Darren - the man they had met a day earlier.
“Hello there,” he called out from the distance. He gave an over-the-top wave to the seven as he spoke. Ella waved back enthusiastically. When the two reached the crossroads, the unknown man hung back, as Darren walked over to embrace Sofia and Ella.
“I’m so glad you decided to come,” he said. “And there really are more of you! Brilliant!”
“Who’s that?” Zack asked, pointing over to the other man.
“Ahh, this is Andy,” Darren responded as Andy lifted his head in confirmation. “Andy has been with us for a while now.” Darren looked around at the group and could see that they were looking for a more thorough explanation. “I thought it best to bring someone else. Just as I’m sure you were worried that I was trying to trick you, I wanted to make sure I was protected too.”
Darren’s answer seemed enough for Zack, but George shuffled nervously. After a round of introductions, the seven picked up their rucksacks and departed.
“Just a few more minutes,” Darren announced as they came closer to the village. They could see some buildings at the end of the road as they turned a corner. Either side of them were overgrown, long untended fields. But towards the end of the road there was a smaller patch that was clearly looked after, with potato and courgette plants rising up from the ground. George’s eyes lit up when he saw them.
They passed a long row of bungalows before hitting the larger houses. They all looked empty, and none of them had cars parked outside. Eventually they reached a junction with what was clearly a main road. Across it to the left was a gate, where two men stood holding rifles. Zack broke his step and fell still when he saw them.
“It’s alright Zack,” Darren called to him. “The guns are to keep you safe inside, not to keep you outside!”
The two men waved and greeted Darren and Andy as they opened the gate. They nodded to the seven as they passed through. Zack, Sofia, Ella and Alex all nodded back and said hello. Danielle and George both slipped through awkwardly, refusing to make eye contact. The child looked up at them blankly.
Through the gate there was a small dirt track that led up to a building. To the path’s left were four parked cars. To the right of it, there was a quad of grass with a low fence surrounding its perimeter. Ella was blown away. In the quad, there were two people with a watering can leaning over and tending to the many pots of flowers that were dotted around. Pansies, geraniums and petunias nestled in terracotta.
“Wow,” she said. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen flowers in pots. It’s so beautiful.” She had stopped on the path to look out at them, her mouth left open.
“Isn’t it just?” Darren said. “Sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest difference.”
Darren led them into the building. Inside, it became clear it was a village hall or a community centre. Down a narrow corridor, they arrived at a large open hall. Tucked to the sides were two piles several feet high. One was stacked with gym mats, the other, shorter, was made up of blankets. In the centre of the room, tables were laid out, with people sitting around talking and eating food. When one of the diners spotted the group, she stood up and began clapping. The rest followed suit until the room was filled with dozens of people clapping and cheering, looking over at Darren, Andy and the seven. Ella and Danielle were beaming and waved to the room.
“Here, pop your bags down and let’s get you some lunch,” Darren said, pointing towards the hatch at the end of the room, where two women stood in aprons behind a giant pot. The seven obliged and made their way towards the hatch. As they walked towards it, smiling faces looked up at them from the tables and they were greeted with half a dozen handshakes and ‘welcomes’ each.
“What do we have today?” Darren asked.
“We’re a little short on tins, so it’s stew again,” One of the aproned women responded. “Onion, carrots and potato,” she clarified. George’s eyes were taken by the large plate to the side of the pot.
“Bread!” he exclaimed. “You have bread!” The two women chuckled.
“We’ve been making it for a while. We’re surrounded by wheatfields and there’s an old windmill about three miles away that we got working again.”
“I can’t believe you have bread!” George said, turning his ecstatic face towards Danielle who smiled back at him.
They collected their food and sat at an empty table with Darren and Andy. George and Alex ate quickly and greedily, overwhelmed by the meal. Danielle fed the child before starting to eat herself. Darren began explaining the village and how it operated.
“So, this is the first place we secured and held,” he explained. “It’s been the heart of our community ever since. We all eat here together each day, and most of us sleep in here too.” He pointed to the gym mats and blankets stacked to the side of the hall.
“They aren’t much but they’re a little bit of comfort. Since we’ve grown, we have another group that sleeps in the church - particularly now the summer has come. The church is more spacious, but it can be bitterly cold. We don’t encourage it, but there are a couple of houses that some of us will sleep in from time to time if people want a bit more privacy. We have guards on the gate to the village hall - as you’ve seen, and the same outside the church. They’re there through the night. We don’t have the numbers to protect any of the houses so you’re taking a risk.”
“The church sounds nice,” Ella said noncommittally, savouring the last spoon of her stew.
“There’s a fair amount of work to do day to day,” Darren said. “Every evening the whole village comes together and we discuss the tasks for the following day. You’ll get to pick whatever it is you want to do most.”
After they’d eaten, Darren led them to the church. They nodded again to the men on the gate to the village hall as they passed through it. A few steps down the main road, there was a wooded area which Darren took them through - again guarded with a gate. On the other side was a beautiful church garden, decorated with wonky and worn gravestones. The grass was long and unkempt and covered up the names.
Sofia spotted that in the far-right hand corner there were two new looking slabs that weren’t in keeping with the others. There wasn’t any grass in front of them - instead there was a slightly raised mound of dirt, one for each of the stones. Sofia winced at first, but a moment later, she smiled softly. There was a comfort in the humanity of ritual.
Inside, the church was stunning. Its character was fully intact. At the end of the aisle, the altar stood firm. The nearby pulpit looked as if it were still in use, a bible open on the stand. All the pews still had kneelers tucked underneath them and most of them had the New Testament slotted in the back pouch.
A not wholly happy memory hit Alex as he remembered the Sundays he was forced to spend in church as a child. Zack, Danielle and George scanned around the building, admiring the carved wood and stained glass. Ella looked visibly distressed. The child was expressionless.
Sofia had deviated from the group as something caught her eye in one of the pew pouches. It was a small booklet - nothing flashy, just three pieces of A4 printed, stapled together and folded in half. She picked it up and flicked through it, sighing and shaking her head. It was a programme for a service. In the service, the congregation were asked to fall silent to mourn those who had been lost in ‘recent events’. Later, the deacon led prayers for safety for those who were still here and made what must have been a wrenching request for forgiveness.
Sofia concluded it must have been the last service held here and it filled her with sadness. She turned to the back page and saw that service ended with We Cannot Measure How You Heal. She wasn’t raised as a churchgoer and it wasn’t one she remembered from school. She read the words to herself, imagining a made-up melody in her mind. She skimmed the first verse, but the second one she read and re-read three times.
The pain that will not go away,
the guilt that clings from things long past,
the fear of what the future holds,
are present as if meant to last.
But present too is love which tends,
the hurt we never hoped to find,
the private agonies inside,
the memories that haunt the mind.
She flung her head up to the ceiling and closed her eyes, picturing the congregation standing and singing - half of them out of tune, but all of them in togetherness. She heard the organ ringing in her ears. After a moment, she folded the booklet twice more and placed it in her pocket.
“So, that’s it for now really,” Darren declared after showing the seven round the church. “What do you think?” A friendly grin adorned his face.
Zack and Sofia looked around at the rest of the group. Their faces appeared content.
Alex broke the slightly awkward silence first. “This place is brilliant,” he said. “I can’t believe you’ve managed to live like this.”
Darren chuckled and sighed. “It’s been a hell of a lot of work. But it’s a hell of a lot better than the alternatives!”
“I want to stay here,” George said, looking round at the others. There was a brief pause, until Danielle put her arm around him and said, “I want to stay here too.” The rest of the group agreed. Darren clapped his hands and grinned.
“Fantastic - well… welcome! I’ve got some things to do for the rest of the day, but you should all make yourselves at home. Some people are out for now, but they’ll all be back by evening. In the meantime, get yourselves settled, make some friends with the folks who are around, and I’ll see you in the hall for dinner and at the fire for the meeting, okay?”
Darren exited the church, whistling as he walked down the aisle. After he left, the seven took a moment’s deliberation, before agreeing that they would sleep together in the church, while the others went to collect their belongings. Danielle stayed in the church with the child, resting herself on the first pew. She held his hand and spoke softly.
“I can’t believe our luck,” she said, “After all this time, I never thought a place like this would exist. You know, I really believed that the dome was the only place of safety. I believed that was where we had to go. But why would we need to keep travelling if we could just stay here?”
She looked down at the child’s face. He turned his head towards her. For a fleeting moment, she thought there was a look of recognition in his eyes. But the moment passed, and the vacant stare was all that was left. She squeezed his hand and closed her eyes, a wriggle of discomfort rattling through her.
When the rest of the group returned, a sense of relief fell over her. They spent the next hour or so slowly sorting through their belongings, and making a little sense of home tucked into the left transept which was empty when they arrived. They spoke intermittently, in broken but warm conversation.
After making their nest, they made their way back to the village hall. Sofia, Ella, Alex, Danielle and the child stayed outside and spoke with the small group of people who were looking after the garden. Zack and George went inside the building. They offered to help the kitchen team with the washing up.
The hours passed with idle small talk. As the afternoon moved into the betwixt time before evening, Zack and George were ushered out of the kitchen. They joined the others in the front garden, sitting in on the grass with three other people. The time passed quicker than they expected, and before long they were told dinner would be ready.
George piled his plate with as much bread as he was allowed to take and became entirely engrossed in the meal. The others chatted absently with each other and the few people who sat at their table.
At one point, Ella laid down her cutlery and began to cry. Zack was sitting across from her, looking pained. Danielle reached out and wrapped her hand around Ella’s. Sofia put an arm around her. The others at the table were taken aback.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “It just came over me all of a sudden. Sitting here, eating this food, seeing all these people, hearing that hum of conversation. I never thought we’d get to experience something like this. We’ve not been around this many people for so long.”
Sofia squeezed her shoulder.
“They’re happy tears! They’re happy tears, I think,” Ella said, trying to force a smile between them.
One of the women at the table spoke. Zack saw an odd familiarity in her face that made his brow furrow.
“I felt the same when I came here too,” she said, “It was overwhelming. It made me think about everything we’ve lost. But it gets better. I promise it gets better. Now, every day I just think how grateful I am to be around these people, to be safe, to have a community. It reminds me that after all we’ve been through, there is still a real beauty in this world. This place, these people - that garden out there. It’s all beautiful.”
“Thank you,” Ella said. “Thank you, you’re right.”
After dinner, George helped with the washing up again. Zack and Sofia had pulled up a chair next to the guards on the gate, discussing the security arrangements. Alex and Ella had found a group of fellow smokers and were reclined on the grass outside the village hall. Danielle had stayed inside the hall, playing clapping games with the four other children that were part of the community. The child sat next to her in silence.
As dusk began to set, everyone began to gather on the grass. Four of the residents had dragged a giant fire pit into the centre and loaded it with kindling and logs. Once lit, it gave off a powerful heat and glowed vibrantly in the twilight. Minutes after the fire was alight, Darren and a woman the seven hadn’t yet been introduced to stood up and began waving their arms, motioning for everyone to sit down. Everyone obliged and fell silent. Darren projected his voice across the fire.
“Thank you everyone for joining us this evening. Tonight is a special night.”
He paused, staring intently into the fire.
“Yesterday we mourned the loss of two of our number. That is a loss we will feel for a long, long time. Every soul we have lost aches so very deeply.”
Almost the whole of the circle dropped their heads as he spoke, almost in unison.
“But every soul we save is a soul to cherish. And while yesterday was a day of mourning, today - today is a day of welcome. Tonight, we welcome seven new people to our community. Please everyone welcome our new friends!”
Ella looked around as everyone got to their feet and erupted into cheers and clapping. Every face was staring and smiling at the seven sat on the grass. The noise was overwhelming - a cacophony of warmth. It lasted for what felt like minutes, almost uncomfortably long. Ella smiled awkwardly back and waved until the noise died down.
People began to sit on the grass again. An older man was sitting to Zack’s left and embraced him in a hug as he sat down. It triggered an odd combination of enjoyment and embarrassment.
“Our new friends mean we are now ninety-six in number!” Darren proclaimed. His announcement triggered another outburst of cheers and elation. He waited until the noise died down before speaking again. “When the first of us came here,” he said, “We had a dream. We had a dream that we would build a new community in the ashes of the old. We had a dream that there would be one hundred people living here, not fighting, not competing, but working together for a new world. A world where we can live side by side again. A world where we can laugh together again. A world where we can grow old together again. Today, we are a step closer to that world.”
More cheers came from around the fire. Danielle and George were spellbound with Darren, drawn in by the rhythm of his speech, the way it undulated from quiet to loud. They had never heard anything quite like it.
“I apologise for taking up so much time today. Today’s facilitator is Steph.”
Steph was the woman who was standing beside Darren throughout his introduction. Her voice couldn’t be more different - stern and matter of fact. For the benefit of the newcomers, she explained how things operated. Each day, a different member of the community would be responsible for drawing up the list of tasks for the following day - alongside two others - and would then facilitate that evening’s meeting.
After the explanation, she read out the names of ten people who were due a rest day, having worked for five or more consecutive days. She then ran through a list of tasks, taking note of the people who raised their hands to take them on. George had eagerly raised his hand to work in the kitchen. Ella had agreed to work in the fields. Zack, Sofia and Alex all signed up for the nebulously titled ‘security’. As the list was read out, Danielle felt an increasing pressure to raise her hand at each job, but she held out until she heard ‘childcare’.
Once all the tasks had been allocated, Zack, Sofia and Alex were taken over into a separate huddle with a dozen others to get briefed on their role for tomorrow and to divvy up shifts. Alex was assigned with one other to the fields. Sofia would be on the village hall gate while Zack was posted to the church. All of them were given day shifts, which seemed to provide something of a relief.
After their briefing, they returned to the rest of the group. They spent the remainder of the evening in conversation. Their new hosts were incredibly keen to hear about their backgrounds, their lives, and the journey that brought them there.
Early on, one of the kitchen team came round and offered everyone a beer. Alex and Ella gratefully accepted. They had made acquaintances with a small offshoot of the main fire - out of range of the children - where they passed cigarettes between each other. Once Ella had finished her beer, she announced that she was going to try and grab an early night and made her way past the dual security - first on the gate to the village hall and then on the gate to the church. Alex stayed with the group, sharing stories.
Almost everyone was still round the fire when Danielle had noticed the child had fallen asleep with his head on her knee. She smiled and tried not to move too much. After a few minutes of keeping still and only talking softly, her leg began to cramp and the child began to stir. She let the others know she was heading to bed, scooped the child into her arms and carried him back to the church.
She entered the church quietly in case anyone was sleeping, making sure not to let the door swing back into place. With it closed delicately behind her, she walked up the aisle. There was a soft glow coming from the transept where she had set up her bed earlier that day. As she approached, she saw it was Ella sat up against the wall, the light of a torch letting her scrawl into a notebook. She looked up when she saw Danielle approaching and smiled at her. She brightened the torch so that Danielle could see where she was stepping and could get herself and the child to bed. Danielle tucked the child in first - wrapped up in blankets that swamped him - and then rolled herself onto her mat and pulled up the cover.
“Goodnight Ella,” she said.
“Night Danielle,” Ella replied, dimming the light as faint as she could while still being able to see her handwriting. Danielle drifted off shortly before Ella turned off the torch and came to bed too.
Enjoyed this chapter? Subscribe to get The Seven in your inbox every Saturday and follow for updates and more content on Facebook, X, Instagram, Threads and Bluesky.