After It Happened (Book 1): Survival Page 18

  The man mused this, never taking his eyes off the confident soldier who in turn kept a careful watch on the man’s axe, and was mindful to keep his hands away from the pistol grip on his chest.

  “I’m Dan” he said, inviting a reply from the man and receiving only silence for a time.

  “Jack” he said finally “tell me more of your home”

  Dan listed off the people – those that he could remember, feeling shallow – and told Jack of the different ‘trades’ they now had.

  “Perhaps you have a spare bed for an old man?” he said at last

  “We do. Want to follow me?” He replied.

  “I will. Do you have a CB?” Jack asked

  “A CB? No, you have one? Do you know how they work?” Dan asked excitedly.

  Jack said yes, to both questions. It seemed like they might get a communications network after all.

  READY FOR HIBERNATION

  The next week was a blur of activity. Fuel runs were made daily, until every jerrycan and fuel tank was topped to the brim. Neil even ran the generators for a couple of hours each night, so that the group could sit by the heaters and watch a DVD on the large TV in the lounge area.

  Dan’s old Defender was recovered, and six of them were now stored in a cleared out farm shed near the workshop. His new truck was a matter for a little jealousy, but rank has privilege he supposed. Following the lorry load of kit taken from the army surplus store, the Rangers took over the small classroom building between the house and the gym.

  Sera had checked her way through the livestock, declaring them all healthy, and logistics staff were reassigned to help with the farm animals and the cooking and cleaning to keep them busy and give others a rest. Days off were given to everyone, and the gym started to get some use.

  Autumn was almost at a close then, and Dan would be lying if he said he wasn’t worried about the weather. His own truck, Lexi’s and Jimmy’s lorry all had CB radios wired in and fixed to the dashboards now. Base sets were in the ops room and at the gardens. Everyone leaving home was ordered to check every lorry they saw for a radio, and to remove it for Jack if they found one. They got a good enough signal unless masked by the terrain for at least a ten-mile radius, which he though was fine for now.

  The big surprise came when Joe drove back in from a trip with a heavily laden minibus behind him. Dan was in Ops when they drove in, suffering with a cold which made him groggy and irritable.

  He brought in six people, all of which had found each other far to the north and decided to gather supplies before running south after the better weather. Dan was introduced to them, trying not to overtly assess their usefulness as he feigned interest.

  That evening Penny ran through her usual greeting routine. She added that she had spoken to all of our new joiners and convinced them to stay at least for the winter. She called a head of department meeting, and curiously one of the new women was sat at her side when the others left.

  “Karen is to be the group administrator from now on, reporting to me” she said, having to pause when Dan unintentionally interrupted with a sneeze. Karen gave a brief explanation of her work as a legal secretary and personal assistant making her qualified to do the job. Dan smelled something funny going on, but decided to let it play out.

  “As Karen knows the others better than all of us, she will run through their work assignments”

  Karen smiled and started to list them.

  “Jake worked in a pet store, but when offered to work with the animals he declined. He will join the cleaning team keeping the house in order” she consulted her notes

  “Carl is an electrician, I assume he will be useful to the engineering team” she looked up at Neil, who nodded and said “Gladly”

  “Helen and Lou. Neither really have a trade, but Helen expressed a wish to work in the kitchen” she looked at Cara who nodded “and Lou will be added to the cleaning team also”

  “Steve is a helicopter pilot” she said, which got the attention of everyone at the table. She held up a hand and let everyone down gently.

  “He wholly believes that there will be no serviceable aircraft left by now. I’m assured that they require a lot of engineers to make one ready to fly, and it’s basically an impossibility”

  “Where did he learn to fly?” asked Dan

  Karen consulted her notes briefly “He flew trips to the North Sea oil rigs” and smiled at him, falsely he suspected.

  “Yes, but where did he learn?” he asked patiently.

  Karen read some more before she replied “RAF”

  “I’ll take him” Dan said. An RAF pilot would have some weapons training and good escape and evasion experience. Better than his own, most likely, having never faced the prospect of being shot down and alone behind enemy lines.

  “He has expressed a wish to…” Karen started in disagreement

  “Let me speak to him then, if he doesn’t want to be a Ranger then that’s fine” Dan said with finality.

  Penny took over again, smiling at him to show to everyone that there was no animosity.

  “Very well everyone. Is there any other business?” she asked

  “Weather is closing in, very soon we will be limited to off road vehicles on short trips and tractors or walking between here and the farm” Dan said, then looked around the table for agreement and getting it from everyone.

  “When the frosts and snow starts, the only people to leave home regularly are Rangers and they will work in pairs. I know we’ve all driven in ice and snow before but without any road maintenance a simple journey will be far more dangerous. One Ranger will always be here for protection though.” Nobody disagreed, and the council melted away. He decided to offer an olive branch to Penny, as she still hadn’t forgiven him.

  “We get through this winter, we’ll do fine” he said

  Penny smiled warmly at him, and said “We will, I’m sure of it”

  Dan left the meeting, bumping into Leah and sending her to find Steve and bring him to Ops. She was annoyed as they were about to turn the power on for the TV, but he promised her a surprise in the morning. Easily distracted, she skipped off and Dan sat in Ops to pour two glasses.

  Steve was maybe forty-five, fit and still with a totally full head of hair. Dan was annoyed at that because the man had nearly ten years on him, and he had had to shave his hair and beard to the same length, exposing his rapidly receding hairline. Steve knew he was getting the sales pitch, but kept his face neutrally interested. Dan asked about his early career, finding out that Steve had flown numerous different types of helicopters over the last quarter century, having spent almost the last nine months in his retirement playing taxi in God-awful weather in a Sea King.

  His early training and operational deployments had indeed covered highly in-depth escape and evasion training, some of it was delivered not far from here at an army camp in the nineties.

  Dan knew it fairly well…

  He spoke a little of what the Rangers were expected to do, and some of the highlights of recent events.

  “I’m not going to piss about; I want you on-board” he said after a thoughtfully long sip of scotch.

  “I was always going to say yes” Steve said and stood to drain the last of his glass.

  “Thanks for the drink. I assume I start in the morning?”

  “Yes. See you after breakfast”

  THE DEMONS WE CARRY

  The patient didn’t remember much. He knew of dark things in his past. Of pain and incarceration. Of white halls and white floors and white coats. Of injections and tablets.

  He did remember that he never felt so alive as when they stopped making him take the tablets. When they coughed and spluttered and lay down to die. He did not die. The demon who controlled him had kept him alive for a reason.

  He walked along the hospital corridors for days; staring, touching and resting when he felt the need. He took clothes from people and other possessions as he wandered between wards and cubicles without challenge. He en
joyed the quiet and the freedom.

  He received instruction from the demon. It told him of great plans he had now that all those who would stand in his way were dead; killed by its own power it claimed. The man did what the demon told him.

  At some time in the second week of him walking the corridors, the demon told him to feed from the body of a once beautiful young doctor. Her beauty would be added to theirs if he ate it.

  The cycle went on for weeks like this. Twice he did as he was commanded and ate the flesh of those the demon wanted to absorb into their body. He heard the demon tell him to look in the mirror; that he could see the change already in them.

  As he walked the now familiar halls one day, he heard the sound of smashing glass. The demon bid him to go and see what caused the intrusion into their domain.

  He stalked slowly towards them, powerful and lithe like a predator.

  He saw his prey, and the demon told him how to take her.

  TAKE YOUR SHILLING, MAKE YOUR MARK

  Steve’s firearms assessment was a formality, as was sorting and issuing his personal kit. Dan just watched as he put the gear together effectively. Lexi and Joe put their heads around the door to say goodbye and welcome their new ‘brother’ before they went on the last scouting missions of the week, and probably this year. Lexi was to check out A&E to see if it was viable to scavenge there yet, and Joe was checking lorry parks for more CB radios plus whatever else he found.

  He was skilled behind the wheel, and was given Dan’s old Defender. He took a similar gun to Dan too; carbine with a suppressor and a mid-range zoom optic. He carried himself and his equipment like a professional, which pleased Dan no end. Somehow having another trained man holding a gun made him feel better, less like the responsibility was a burden.

  He spent some time fashioning the end of a gun slip into a holster for the shot gun to sit diagonally along his back. Steve had recognized it as a SPAS, nodding with approval. Dan only found out what it was by reading the etchings by the trigger guard, but he knew how it worked and thought he had seen it used in a film or two. Lou, one of the new women, found him wandering the house looking for sewing supplies. He explained what he wanted to do and she traded conversation for needlework. Dan was happy to oblige, and after some time spent chatting over coffee she had produced a black tube to fit the gun with heavy elastic sewn in to keep it secure. She used some attachments from unused kit to fashion the fixings, making it removable if needed, but fit the back of his vest perfectly.

  He was feeling satisfied with life and looking forward to rabbit and pigeon pie tonight with some beers and cake before settling down for a film by the heaters.

  All these plans were shattered and his good mood disintegrated when Lexi failed to come back that evening.

  He told the concerned gathering that he was sure Lexi was fine, that it was probably a vehicle fault or something. He told them all to go to bed and he will go first thing in the morning to where she was sent. Leah said she went to check the nearest hospital, about ten miles away as the crow flies.

  Dan was worried. Very worried. She should easily be within CB range and no transmission was made or replied to. She could be in a black spot. Could she have had vehicle failure? No, she could’ve walked back here hours ago. The more he thought of it, the more worried he became. He was sure she had met something hostile.

  He waited until his audience had left ops, then broke out his carbine, shotgun and sidearm. He had three full magazines for the 9mm Sig Sauer P226, five full magazines of 5.56 for his suppressed M4 and six shells locked and loaded into the SPAS strapped to his back. Close encounters.

  His dog, Ash, watched him in silence. He knew something was up and was waiting for the word to move. That dog got bigger every day and would be fully grown by Christmas. His paws were still too big for him though.

  He went to sneak out, and was blocked by Steve in the doorway. He too was dressed fully in black with a black tactical vest filled with magazines. He carried the same weapons as Dan, with his equipment almost identical bar his was black and Dan’s was tan coloured. His exception was the rare stubby shotgun; that was his legacy from a story he didn’t want to share yet.

  “I assumed we were moving straight away?” he asked

  “Yes. Take these, I’m guessing I don’t need to show you how they work?” Dan replied, sliding a black Peli case across the table towards him. A pair of night vision goggles were inside, which Steve was familiar with. God only knew how he flew a helicopter wearing them he thought.

  “We’ll go in mine” Dan said, and walked out of the front door to the ornate building they called home, but had previously been a prison.

  “Heel” he growled softly as he went, and the grey dog shot out after him to walk at his left side before jumping into the black Land Rover Discovery, heading out into the gathering dark.

  He had put a stop to moving at night for the prime reason that the sight and sound of a vehicle moving in the dark nowadays was about as noticeable as a fireworks display.

  He drove slowly, using the night vision goggles to see as he had no lights on. These were fine with practice, but the lack of depth perception made everything after about thirty metres a surprise. That kept you on your toes.

  He was cursing himself for not giving in to his paranoia and pulling out all the bulbs on his new off-roader. He had to make do with strips of heavy gaffer tape over all the light clusters but was still sure that some of the brightness escaped. Maybe one of his brainiacs could develop a kill switch to knock off all the fuses to the bulbs.

  He forced himself to concentrate on the perilous drive and not worry about the things outside of his control. There was nothing to say for certain that Lexi was in trouble, but he felt that this was serious; she went dark way too close to home for comfort.

  Steve sat in the passenger seat checking a map by the light of a small red lensed torch. Dan didn’t need many directions as the road signs still stood, but Steve was being thorough and studying the map for knowledge and possibilities.

  He killed the engine about a mile short of the hospital and took a look at the map with Steve whispering point of reference and interest to him. Both had their goggles pushed up on their heads to allow some night vision to develop, as it was now nearing pitch black.

  Steve pointed to a place on the map and said “ERV” meaning ‘emergency rendezvous point’. “Wait one hour and return to the vehicle. Leave the keys on the rear nearside wheel” he finished.

  “Agreed” said Dan, meaning that if they got split up and the other did not make it to the meeting point, then they would be left behind by the other. Losing one could easily turn into losing three. Losing these three in particular would almost certainly mean death or hardship for the group.

  They stalked in slowly, working as a pair; one covered as the other moved. They performed this leapfrogging, Ash gliding silently by Dan’s side, until they reached the approach to the hospital.

  They spent some time watching the building as best they could, and saw no movement. They began to leapfrog forward again, more slowly now.

  Dan took cover and scanned the ground ahead. He thought he could smell the hospital from here already. He froze, double checked what he thought he saw, and then snapped his fingers once for Steve’s attention. He remained in position, weapon pointing towards the interest until Steve moved to his side and whispered in his ear.

  “Hers?” he asked

  “Yes” Dan whispered back. Ash let out the smallest of whines and Dan quieted him with a reassuring hand on the back of his head. He had seen the Land Rover that he had given to Lexi – a grey Defender with black wheels and a black roof, chunky off road tyres and a solid metal sided boot space. A chill washed over him; a wave of fear and responsibility.

  “Go slow, do a three-sixty until we find an access point” he whispered, intending to retrace Lexi’s steps.

  “Roger” Steve responded, and went first.

  They started from nearest her vehicle, as w
ould make sense, to see if and where she had got inside. The Defender was parked by the main front doors, and they worked to the left where they found the A&E entrance after a couple of hundred metres.

  Smashed glass in a defunct sliding door said she was likely in. It didn’t look like old damage at all and only a few leaves had blown inside. Dan was concerned about taking Ash in through the broken glass, so spent ten painstaking and leg-cramping minutes brushing it away so slowly to avoid making noise. All the time Steve was scanning all around him alert for signs of danger. Ash was a great early warning system; his ears and nose would detect people and noises long before they could, and Dan had learned to take his lead from the adolescent dog at times like this. Not that his nose would be much use inside; the air hung heavy, rank with the chocking smell of decomposing bodies.

  When he had finally cleared their entrance he whispered “Moving” softly to Steve.

  He climbed inside as silently as possible before leading Ash through. He made him sit in the waiting room, confident that nothing would get to them and still possess all its limbs intact.

  They went as silently as possible, having to use the goggles as the inside of the building allowed no ambient light to penetrate. Dan wished he had some green dot laser sights for the carbine, but had never considered he might have to do building searches by goggles. He snapped himself out of the brief daydream. Ash was blinded by the darkness, but his canine senses were worth an entire squad of trained Spetsnaz right now.

  It took a long time to clear even a small area in a tight formation of three, but neither suggested splitting up – it was too dangerous to contemplate.

  A low growl came from Ash, quickly stopped as Dan put a reassuring hand down to him. He could hear the dog sniffing the ground, and looked down to decipher the marks he could see.

  There were streaks of dried blood, but then there were rotting bodies and blood trails in a lot of places, but this was fresh; red not brown. Dan looked closer and saw two parallel dark lines mixed in with the blood trail. He ran his finger over them, and was rewarded with the tiny shreds of rubber balling up under his touch.