Greg found himself nodding along to what Caleb was saying, he knew it was just flattery, but he had always been a sucker for flattery. Caleb wasn’t such a bad guy after all.
“As far as I’m concerned, what’s done is done! All we can do now is fix it, and we are going to all have to work together on this one! No hard feelings?” Caleb held out his hand.
“Nah, no hard feelings,” Greg said and shook Caleb’s hand, “though you might want to share that sentiment with Ethan.”
“Yeah, what’s with that?” Caleb asked, letting go of Greg’s hand.
“We, uh.... don’t really see eye to eye a lot of the time,” Greg said looking to Jim, who was just driving but no doubt still paying attention.
“Ha,” Caleb laughed, “I think I will leave that to you and him, I’m not here to stir up shit! I’m sure you two will sort things out between you soon enough!”
‘
Not bloody likely’
Greg thought to himself and phased out the rest of what Caleb was saying, he soon moved on to talking to his boy but Greg really wasn’t interested; he was more concerned with the fact that Michaels and Knox were out there and more than likely en route to the same destination as themselves. That bastard Knox terrified Greg, and with good right; he was an ape of a man with nought but violence on his mind, he loved to intimidate him while in the bunker, and he didn’t even have to look at him to do it, he would simply walk right through him as if he wasn’t there at all, or stand right in front of him, so uncomfortably close that Greg would have to move just to breathe; how he hated the man, but then, he had grown to hate most of the people in his life. All apart from Ivy that was, he really
had
loved her (the horrible cow), they had met through an online dating agency and discovered that they lived only a few miles from each other, it all seemed so perfect. When they finally arranged to meet it had forced him to get his act together, he lost weight, tidied himself up, he even cleaned the flat just in case, and when they met, god it was amazing; both of them entered a tempest that neither could break from, the relationship snowballed and before the year was out they were married (what a bloody mistake that was).
They say that you truly get to know a person once you have been with them for a year, and it was around a year later that the true Ivy came out; the whining, moaning malicious bitch that she was. Let’s do this, let’s do that, clean up this, wear that, why are you always so moody, how come you never want to spend time together anymore? It was exhausting, but beautiful; he had never been happier than when sitting alone with her, why could she never understand that he was happy just with her? He didn’t need the outside world as long as he was with her!
Then she broke his heart. She just up and left one day, out of the blue, she left him a note saying that she couldn’t do it anymore; she never did explain what.
Greg found himself wondering if she had made it, wandering if she was still alive. He hoped she was dead. Bitch!
Greg saw a reflection of his own wistful eyes in Caleb’s as he caught him looking back to the other Argo, no doubt looking at Cassie; he couldn’t blame him, Greg would be lying if he said that he hadn’t spent more than a few nights dreaming of that particular forbidden fruit. It was a shame what happened to Carol, whatever happened to Carol, Greg had put in a good bit of time on that one in the bunker, a real scatterbrain she was, the whole zombie thing hit her hard and made her a little unstable; he had spent many a night talking to her, comforting her, and getting nowhere. What a waste of time! He had seen her run back into the building and then all those Firsts run in after her.
It was just his luck!
_________________________
Sarah had spent the last hour or so chastising Zoe on the merits of safe sex (even though the world was falling apart, there was still no excuse for frivolity) and frankly Ethan was sick of it.
Earlier he had seen Caleb talking to Greg, and even shaking hands with him, which was a shame really, Ethan had just started to like him; he couldn’t quite work out whether Caleb was a better or worse man than himself for being able to forgive Greg for his idiocy. But he came to the conclusion that he didn’t care either way, he was done wasting time on that man.
Ethan decided it was time they had a short break and radioed Jim.
“Hey, Jimbo...! How we lookin’...?”
“It’s all good round my way, Big E. You lookin’ to take five...?”
“That I am, swing round those trees on your ten and we will take a break!”
“Ten four...!”
Jim swung round just as he expected him to do, they circled the small group of trees to make sure there was nothing unexpected lurking within, then turned in and reverse parked beside each other.
“Ok folks,” Ethan said loud enough for everyone to hear, “We are here for twenty minutes, no more. I want everyone to stay close, if you have to go anywhere take someone with you, and take a weapon!”
It was coming on noon and they had been travelling for a good six hours so everyone was happy to get out and walk around for a bit; they should have travelled around eighty miles but the terrain they had had to cover had been hard and slow going, they were lucky if they had covered half of that. Zoe pretty much ran away from Sarah towards Brandon, and Ethan couldn’t blame her, that woman couldn’t half rabbit on; Sarah went to talk to Jim anyway and Caleb came over to talk to Cassie; so where did that leave Ethan, talking to Greg?
‘I don’t bloody think so’
Ethan thought, he was just about to join Cassie and Caleb when he heard a man’s voice crackle through the radio.
‘
Hello? Is there anyone there, hello?’
Ethan rushed over to the radio and scooped it up
“This is Sergeant Rigby speaking. Who am I talking to?”
‘See! I told you I fucking heard him!’
“Hello? Who am I speaking to?” Ethan repeated.
‘
We, uhh.... we’re in trouble! Can you come and help us?’
the voice said in a decidedly untroubled manner.
“Who am I speaking to? What is your location?”
‘We need help! Can you come and help us?’
“Your location...!” Ethan said firmly.
‘I can’t tell you where we are, but I can tell you where we will be!’
“Ok then! Tell me where you will be!”
‘We are gonna be coming for you....
Ethan
, and when we
find
you, you are gonna be
fucked
!’
There was loud laughing form the other end of the radio and
Ethan recognised all too late that it was
Deane
that he had been speaking to; only
he
would be idiot enough to throw away the tactical advantage of surprise on the enemy. Where Deane was you were bound to find his bosom buddy Harper, and Harper was never far behind Knox. Ethan considered saying more but stopped himself and turned off the radio; he looked up to see Cassie and Caleb looking at him shocked, everyone else was spread out away from earshot.
“I think it would be best if we didn’t let the others know about this, at least not just yet” Ethan said.
“Who
was
that?” Caleb asked.
“That was Deane,” Cassie said, “He is one of the soldiers from the bunker; not a very pleasant one either!”
“He doesn’t sound it!”
“He’s a bloody arsehole is what he is!” Ethan said shaking his head, “And he can’t be far away; these small radios only reach up to around twenty miles, not even that when it’s as hilly as it is here!”
“Do you think he is still with Michaels?” Cassie asked worriedly.
“I don’t think there is any doubt; Deane wouldn’t go anywhere without Knox, and Knox will be with Michaels. All we can do is hope that they are twenty miles behind us and not in front, but even if they are, I don’t think our lead will last very long, not at the speed the Argo’s move at!” the more Ethan thought about it the worse it got, there was no way that they could beat Michaels to the power plant now.
“But at least we now know that they
are
coming!” Caleb said.
“And that’s a good thing?” Cassie asked.
“Well, yeah! It’s better than them sneaking up on us. Now we can be vigilant, we know they are out there and we know they are looking for us. How long do you think it will take us to get to the plant, Ethan?”
“We should be there by tomorrow evening.”
“What if we travel through the night?”
“Probably by tomorrow morning, but we can’t....”
“Does Jim have a night scope for his rifle?”
“Nope...!”
“Bugger.... I guess we had better hope for a clear night then, ‘cause we’re not stopping!”
Ethan couldn’t believe what Caleb was suggesting, but he had to hand it to him, the guy had bollocks. Ethan nodded, “I guess we had better hope for a clear night!”
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Cassie asked still with the worried tone in her voice.
“No! It’s a bloody awful idea, but it’s the only chance we’ve got” Ethan said looking to Caleb who was nodding in agreement. “Right folks, back in the wagons,” Ethan said loud enough for everyone to hear “we’re heading out!”
“Ethan,” Cassie said grabbing his shoulder, “we
have
to tell the others!”
“I know Cassie, I will just tell them now. We’re going to need all eyes peeled!”
“Hang on a minute,” Caleb said anxiously, “What the fuck is that?”
Chapter
21
Good to Go
Deane laughed so hard that his sided began to hurt; he had always hated that jumped up mechanic Rigby, and getting one over on him made his day, right up to the point where the huge tracked vehicle in front of them stopped that is.
“Oh fuck! You don’t think they heard that do you?”
“Course they did you dumb bastard, that thing has everything in there, they can probably hear what we are saying right now!” said Harper who was driving the Land Rover still chuckling to himself.
“Shut the fuck up, Harper you twat!”
The back door of the TC dropped down like a drawbridge and Knox marched out of it and headed round to Deane’s door, he could see the whites of the eyes of the other soldiers sitting in the TC behind Knox, it didn’t look good.
Knox wrenched the door open and grabbed him by the collar, dragging him out of the Land Rover and throwing him to the ground, his knee connected badly with the kerb and he could feel the skin come away from his left palm as he landed.
“What the fuck was that, soldier?” Knox screamed at him spraying his face with spit.
“What was what, Sir?” he said cupping his damaged hand.
“Don’t play the fucking fool with me, Deane. What the fuck were you doing talking to Rigby?”
“Rigby...? I.... Just heard his voice on the radio and.... and I wanted to confirm it was him, Sir!”
“And you did confirm it was him! Then what did you do?”
“I”
“You fucking told him that we are coming for him you fucking idiot! You removed the element of surprise from our attack which will make our job ten times more difficult! You may as well have given away our position! I have a good mind to leave you here for the Lurkers!”
“Maybe we should!” the unmistakable posh voice of Michaels came from behind him. “We have no place for stupid troopers here!”
“He may be stupid but he is a good soldier, Sir!” said Knox, suddenly taking Deane’s side.
“Be that as it may, I don’t think insubordination can go unpunished!”
Deane knew where this was going. Michaels was an unforgiving man and Knox very rarely stood up to him. He had to move, and he had to move fast if he wanted to get out of this in one piece.
“Sir, I....” Knox said
“Put him in the back with Fosters, Staff sergeant!” Michaels said firmly.
Deane made a break for it, he knew the conversation was over so it was his last chance, he ran round the back of the Land Rover and grabbed the first thing that came to hand; luckily it was a small rocket launcher, pretty much the only thing that could take Knox out, it wasn’t any type that he had used before but they were all the fucking same. He slipped his hand through the grip and held it at hip height pointed at Knox’s chest; he was only a few feet away and had his hand at his sidearm.
“I’m not going in the back with that fucking thing!”
“Don’t be stupid soldier!”
“Don’t take one more fucking step or I will spread you out all over the place!”
Knox looked down at the weapon, Deane would prefer to have had it on his shoulder to brace the kick it would have but he had a pretty good grip where it was, besides it was too late to move it now. Knox looked back up and into his eyes and his face hardened to steel, he took the step.
‘Oh well,’
Deane thought,
‘It’s not like I didn’t warn you!’
he squeezed the trigger and the rocket launcher lurched in his hands.
It could have only been a fraction of a second between him pulling the trigger and the rocket exploding, but it gave Deane a surprisingly long amount of time to think; he thought about the trajectory of the rocket and the angle he was holding the launcher at, he thought about the distance between Knox and himself and whether he would get caught up in the explosion, he also thought about the monumental fuck up that he had just made.
It suddenly dawned on him that if his hand was fitted snugly within the launchers grip around the barrel, then his hand was in the right position to be holding the launcher in the right position, which was on his shoulder, and if the launcher should be on his shoulder, then at this precise moment the launcher was pointed to the ground and the rocket was about to explode around four feet behind him!
He felt the explosion tear through his legs and back in excruciating slow motion; the flames and shrapnel tore the clothes from his back, the short hairs on his head quickly frazzled away and he felt his ears burning with the intense heat, the force of the blast buckled his knees and slowly he felt the tendons and sinews of flesh tear away from each other in his kneecaps as his lower legs were ripped from his body, he started tumbling backwards through the air towards Knox who was folded in half on the ground cowering like a frightened dog as he passed over.
When he landed, he landed heavily; time sped up again as his limp body crashed to the ground with a violent thud and skidded across the rough tarmac, he came to rest with his head at an awkward angle pointed at Knox, who was still doubled over on the ground. Michaels appeared in his vision and started talking, though Deane couldn’t hear a word he said for the loud ringing in his ears, he caught the last two words just before he was shot through the head though, “....stupid bastard!”
He couldn’t have agreed more!
_________________________
Harry struggled to pull himself from the ground; he hadn’t
actually
thought that Deane was stupid enough to have pulled the trigger, but the world was full of surprises lately; their miraculous escape from the bunker (that was quite the surprise), the fool Michaels actually coming good with his tank and then chopping off Fosters’ hand (shocking
and
surprising), and Rigby running off with the lovely Miss Fosters.... well, not everything was a
complete
surprise, but the manner in which they had ran off
was
pretty spectacular, taking all the geeks and a few of his better soldiers with them. But then, all this couldn’t be dwelled on too much when it felt like you had been kicked in the bollocks by a horse! Deane’s boot was still there, lodged firmly between his legs, He was scared to move it lest the pain grow even worse; so he just sat there quietly whimpering to himself. Deane had done a good job of shielding him from the blast, mostly, but he was now completely soaked in the daft bastard’s blood. He hoped that the pool forming under him was pouring out of the stump of leg protruding from his groin, and not from the groin it’s self. A lurker could easily creep up and happily snack away on him right now and he wouldn’t even care; it might actually take the pain away a little!
“Well.... that was unexpected!” there came the irritating toffy voice from behind him.
All He could do was to release a low grumble from his throat.
“Are you able to carry on, Staff Sergeant, or do I have to put a bullet in you too?” he chuckled, “We really must be getting on!”
Harry dragged himself to his feet and with a strained voice said, “Good to go, Sir!” He marched with all the decorum he could muster back to the tank, throwing Deane’s leg to the left as he did, and barked orders to the men, “Sullivan, You’re in the Land Rover with Harper; White, you take Sullivan’s place on the left cannon,” he then walked up to Urk, private Urquhart was a big lad, almost as big as Harry himself; but he was soft and green, “Stand up Urk!”
“Sir!” he stood up with vigour, eager to please.
“Give me your clothes, Urk!”
“Sir?”
Harry took off his blood soaked jacket, there was no need to say any more; Urk did the same.
_________________________
A thin cloud of black smoke streamed up beyond a lush green rise in the land to their right, it wasn’t close, but it wasn’t exactly far either. They were high up in the hills themselves so they had a good view down the valley; the cloud couldn’t be more than five miles away.
“Do you think that’s
them
?” Cassie asked.
“I don’t think we should wait around to find out!” Ethan said before rushing away to wrangle the troops, who were slowly making their way back to the Argo Cats, “Alright folks! Let’s get back to it! There’s a smoke cloud over there and there is a good chance that it may be Michaels....” Caleb didn’t hear the rest of what Ethan had to say as Cassie started to speak right next to him.
“I
really
hope it’s not Michaels!” she had a flutter in her voice that showed just how scared she really was. Caleb looked to her as she watched the smoke slowly drift into the sky, a soft breeze caught her blonde hair and she brushed it behind her ear with a finger. Caleb really needed to get a grip; this girl was sending him loopy!
“I really hope it is!” she looked at him in disbelief, “Whoever that is, they are in trouble! No one in their right mind would start a fire in the day when the Infected can see the smoke, so it must have been started by accident. Hopefully they have crashed their motor wile laughing at us; which will slow them down. We need all the time we can get!”
“I suppose you’re right,” she didn’t sound convinced.
“That; and your Father might be with them!” Caleb said trying to comfort her, but she looked back at him horrified.
“I hope to god that he’s not! You don’t know what kind of man Michaels is! If my Father is with them then he is in big trouble! God! I hadn’t even thought of that!”
Talk about a backfire!
“I’m sorry, Cassie! I didn’t mean to....”
“It’s ok, it’s ok; it’s not your fault! I just.... we should really be getting back to the Argo’s!”
Caleb felt a proper plum as they trundled along over the hills away at an angle from the trail of smoke leading to the sky. He wasn’t sure how Cassie hadn’t thought that her Father could be with Michaels? It seemed the logical conclusion if he had stayed to make sure that they escaped the facility without harm; but then, Caleb had equally deluded himself about his own parents just a day ago.
The journey sunk under a sombre spell in the knowledge that Michaels and his small army could be over each and every hill they climbed. Little conversation was to be made as each of them could only keep their eyes sharp in case they were discovered. They kept away from the horizon and skirted tree lines as often as they could, avoiding roads to the best of their ability; they ate on the move, no more than a snack really, no one felt like eating much anyway.
The sun eventually sank into the hills before them with a spectacular golden red blaze. Thankfully it was a clear night with very few clouds, they waited beside the Argo’s by the dim starlight until the moon showed its pale face above the inky black hills, the full moon was already waning, with a thick sliver cut from the right hand side, but it washed the land in a cold glow that was just suitable enough to keep moving in moderate safety.
Caleb took over driving from Jim who was starting to look decidedly tired, but once he had his silenced rifle back in his hands he soon brightened up.
They rolled on through the night with surprisingly little contact with Infected or even Husks; Caleb didn’t trust it, there was something very wrong, yes they were avoiding towns, villages and even roads, but they should have had more contact than they did; something was up!
The noise was distant; it was barely audible to begin with over the whining engines of the Argo’s, but when they stopped to talk, not daring to use the radios again, it became all too apparent. Everyone started to look around, wandering where the sound was emanating from. Caleb knew, and he feared it more than anything else; even during the drills it sent shivers to his very core: it was only ever sounded briefly during the drills to let the employees know what to listen out for in case of an emergency, but this was incessant, like the horn of a large ship only more shrill it would be twinned with an old air raid sounding alert, but they wouldn’t be able to hear that until they were much closer.
“It’s the warning klaxon at Sellafield,” Caleb said, “we’re close!”
“Not close enough!” said Ethan, “Let’s keep moving!”
The noise grew louder the further they got and was joined by the air raid siren. Caleb had to calm the nerves of certain members of the group upon hearing it and they kept pushing on without too much fuss. It was another two hours before they were ascending the hill that led down to the power plant; they knew they had arrived from the bright orange glow topping the ridge. The moon had set and it was only just showing signs of sunrise on the opposite horizon.
The power plant came into view, the bright orange lights were dazzling in the darkness and it took time for Caleb’s eyes to adjust. They were still a good four miles away from the plant, but he started to pick out all the areas he knew and locate the areas that they had to access.
“Oh shit!” Jim said quietly beside him.
“What’s up?” Caleb whispered.
“We’re not the only ones who heard the alarm!”