Pickers 4: The Pick (4 page)

"Tinned food. It has been a while." Remy turned the thick, brown, mince heavy mixture with his spoon, then shovelled some up to taste. It was rich, flavoured with unfamiliar herbs and spices. "What did you say it was?"

"Chilli con Carne, it said on the tin." Maxine said. She took a big spoonful from her own plate. Too big a spoonful, it turned out, and she had to lean forward in case there was any spillage.

"There is so much food in there. Why did they have to kill themselves?" Amandine asked.

"They were buried in here, effectively." Fabien said. "Perhaps they just lost the drive, the will to live. Do you think they were in touch with that other bunker? The one you found in Spain?"

Eyes turned to Veronique. If anyone could answer that question, it was her. "We didn't get enough time to really look around the Spanish bunker. But they did have a very powerful computer system. Perhaps they had a communication system. We should have more time to look around here."

"And I've got the diary I found. Maybe it'll have something in it that's relevant." Maxine offered, having finally managed to swallow the excessive serving she had given herself. "I know it sounds horrible, but I'm going to go through the belongings in that room and see what I can find that could be useful."

"Maybe we can bury them. It seems better, somehow, than just leaving them where we found them." Georges said.

"Well, there is a digger." Lucas patted the machine he was sat on. They could heat the food from the bunker's pantry, but none of them had wanted to eat next door to the bodies of the former residents. So they were in the vast garage, now feeling cosier with the shelves and wagons in it.

"We'll do it quick, after we've got the wagons loaded." Georges patted the side of the big rig. "What's the plan for this thing? We can't just leave it here for Raiders to find."

"We can't leave anything for the Raiders to find. There's an armoury down there." Justine pointed past the end of the truck. "I doubt we can carry everything in it in the wagons, not once we've got the seeds in them, anyway."

"I am sure that Papa has a plan for the truck. And the armoury and everything else, no doubt." Veronique said, fixing her father with as stern a look as she could manage whilst still eating.

"I have a plan. But you will all tell me it is crazy."

"Your plan is crazy." Maxine told him. "There is only one plan if you want to take this thing back to the Valley. And it's crazy. So long as I can get what I want from the armoury, I'm in."

"They're back!" Myriam shouted through the door. She waved the radio hand set at her husband.

"Keep on." Julien told the children around the table. "We will need all these grains stored soon to make space for the new delivery." He stood and walked briskly to his wife.

"They are about to enter the Valley. Just the wagons, though."

"No buggy? No bikes?" Myriam shrugged at Julien's question, and handed over the radio. "This is the Mayor. Repeat your report. Over."

"Sir. The wagons passed us a couple of minutes ago. We are following them down the track. Over."

"Just the wagons? How many in them? Over."

"A driver and passenger in each of them. No other vehicles. We didn't stop them to ask where the rest are. Over."

"Alright. We will meet them in the square. Over and out."

Julien looked around until he found a convenient shelf for the radio. "I don't like the sound of this."

"You go. I'll keep this lot working." Myriam gestured toward the exit of the greenhouse. Before Julien set off, however, she caught hold of him and pulled him to her for a quick, reassuring kiss. "I'm sure it's all okay."

There was already a crowd forming on the square. News spread quickly around a small town. Julien nodded to the people gathering around him, but really didn't want to talk to any of them. His mind was running through all the possible reasons why so few of the party was returning.

He heard the buzz of the motorcycles escorting the wagons back into town first, echoed and amplified by the narrow street. After far too long, the crowd at the end of the street parted, and a wagon came through the gap. It was dusty and muddy, but didn't show any signs of violence. It crunched to a halt, and the second pulled up alongside it, right in front of Julien.

Veronique drove the wagon before Julien, with Amandine in the passenger seat. Tony and Lucas were in the other. Julien rushed to the door of Veronique's wagon, stepping up to pull it open. His niece was standing in the doorway. "Everyone else is on their way." she pre-empted her uncle's question. "But they're coming by the other route."

"The other...?" Julien's gaze turned away from the wagon, down the Valley.

"Grab your guns. They may be bringing friends."

"My sister is going to get wet when she sees how much of the computer equipment we got in there." Maxine patted the side of the trailer.

"As wet as you got last night in the armoury?" George asked. He stepped forward, pressing Maxine against the side of the trailer. She went up on tip toe, and he bent slightly, and their lips were close. He bent his right knee, and she clasped his thigh between hers, so that she could rub against it.

"If we had time...." Maxine sighed. She remembered making love in amongst the racks of weapons the night before. She could tell Georges that it wasn't the presence of so many guns that had turned her on, but the thrill of the near total darkness, that had lead to lots of touching, exploring, whispered demands. There was also the way that he was such a good, attentive, and imaginative, lover. He may have been a virgin a couple of weeks before, but he had quickly learnt how to turn her on. She wasn't going to tell him that. Not yet, anyway. There was so much power to be ceded by making an admission such as that.

They kissed. Georges moved so that Maxine was lifted off the ground, her whole weight pressing down on the point where her crotch pushed against his thigh. Maxine drew in a breath, a reverse sigh, pulling the air from Georges' mouth, breathing through his nose. She rotated her hips to grind against the pleasurable contact. Maybe they could sneak away behind one of the still standing walls....

There was a crash, and the rumble of tumbling bricks behind them. Surprised, they broke their kiss.

The front wall of the factory building had collapsed, pushed in by Fabien and his new toy- the small digger they had used to make graves earlier. It crawled over the pile of rubble and started scooping chunks up to fill the hole in the rear wall.

They had sealed the door of the vault, and hidden the turn keys behind wall plates again. Then Maxine had wrapped detonation cord around the metal frame that braced the walls and held up the roof, bringing it all down in a surprisingly quiet flash. Now, they were making access to the vault door as hard as possible. They were going to raise a lot of attention when they left the valley, and someone might come back to see what they had been doing up there. The mess they were leaving should give the impression that they had plundered everything and collapsed the cave in on itself. If not, it would, hopefully hinder any attempts to get in until they returned.

There was still treasure to be pulled out of the vault. A whole section of the seed bank had been filled with crops they couldn't ever hope to grow in the Valley. If they found somewhere stable that could harvest the more exotic fruits, they would return for them.

Maxine slid down Georges' thigh until her feet touched the ground again. She would have liked a quick good luck fuck before they set off. Reaching down to the front of Georges' trousers, she found that he felt the same way. Squeezing him and grinning, she said, "Don't get distracted by that. I want you in one piece at the other end, so we can use it."

"Well stop doing that to it, and maybe it will go away before we have to do any fighting." They stepped apart. Georges took Maxine's hand. "You know that we've not had the.... fighting experience you have. I don't know if I'll be any use."

"When the shooting starts, it's really easy. You just keep them off the roof for as long as possible. I'll use the big gun on any vehicles, and join you and Sarah on point defence if it's needed."

"Oh, right. Simple."

Maxine squeezed Georges' hand. "Very simple. If it wasn't, I couldn't do it."

"They are going to lead all the Raiders in France right into the Valley! We will all be killed! I told you we should never have let that man back into the Valley!" Catellin was an unhealthy shade of red as she fumed. The other councillors in the room- whether they agreed with her or not- watched her, waiting for her to keel over or melt down. "Him and his nigger daughters are in league with the Raiders. They just want to destroy us!"

That was enough for at least one member of the crowd. A hand rested on her shoulder and squeezed, just enough to get her attention. "That is enough, councillor. We all know what you think. We have heard it enough times. Now sit, and let us hear the plan."

Catellin wasn't used to getting orders- and, despite the quiet delivery, it was an order, not a request. Her mouth opened, and her finger was raised, ready to make her point. But she faltered, uncertain, and looked around. The faces that still looked her way had something in their expressions, a quiet plea for her to do as she was told. She sat. The man behind her nodded to Julien before taking his own seat.

"I have been told about the equipment the truck is carrying, and I have to say that the risk it is running is worth it. I do not, for a moment, believe that it will lead Raiders into the Valley. Lucas, you have worked out a battle plan. What does it involve?"

Lucas stood over the relief map of the local mountain ranges. "There is a large concentration of Raiders around this area." He had a pointer, an old radio antenna, and used it to indicate the red ball on the map. "It is, unfortunately, close to the only route the truck can take. Remy will be doing a high speed run past the Raiders, hitting them hard if they attack the truck." Lucas traced the road the truck would be running along. "Now, there is a risk that some.... several, maybe all.... of the Raiders will give chase as the truck heads back to the Valley." There was a collective intake of breath. Lucas held up his hand to stop the inevitable clamour. His pointer tapped a spot on the map, a pass, up to a hamlet built on a cross roads. "Which is why we will be waiting for them here."

Veronique studied the map. This part of the plan, ambushing any Raiders who followed the truck, had been Lucas' idea. Which was why he had come back with the wagons to explain it. She and Tony could have presented the plan to the council, but they wouldn't have been listened to the way he was. And, he and Amandine knew the ambush location, so they could make set up there quick and easy.

"Let them die." Catellin said, her voice a sulky whine.

Veronique wanted to say something cutting, but the words just weren't coming to her. She glared at the woman, shook her head and went back to studying the map.

Julien straightened. Staring straight at Catellin, he said, slowly and strongly, "I am not asking for a vote. I'm looking for volunteers. I will be waiting for my brother, and I hope that most of you will join me. Now, you've seen the plan. We have to go and start working on it." He nodded to Veronique and Lucas, and they followed him out of the room.

The digger lifted itself into position on the back of the trailer. Fabien regarded it with a smile, he was already planning everything he could use it for once they got it to the Valley. Maxine tugged Georges down, so she could whisper to him, "Don't tell him, but I've worked out how to drop that on anything that gets too close."

"You'll break his heart."

"So long as we're alive, I won't mind."

"Are we ready, then?" Remy asked, standing in the cab door.

"We will be in about a minute." Maxine turned to Georges. "Give me a boost up, would you."

Georges was never going to pass up a chance to get his hands on Maxine's buttocks, and he contrived a way to grasp one as part of his hold to lift her up. She grabbed one of the hand holds, and swung a leg over his shoulder, so that her crotch was in his face. "Later for that." she teased him.

Atop the trailer, right above the back doors and the suspended digger, was a cupola with a seat and very big gun in it. Maxine swung the gun down, so it pointed straight back, and strapped herself into the seat. She was almost standing, but supported and held in place. Her upright position gave her extra leverage to traverse the gun through a wide arc of fire. She tested this as Georges watched, then pulled back the priming handle to feed a shell into the chamber.

The roof of the trailer was wide, but there was a spine of walkway all the way along the middle of it. The surface was patterned, for grip, and there was a parallel channel to attach the cable hanging from the harness Georges wore. If he fell, it would keep him from tumbling off the trailer. As Maxine checked the store of ammunition and small arms she shared her space with, Georges attached himself to the vehicle and tested the harness by walking to the front of the trailer.

There was another cupola here. It had two, smaller guns, pointing out to either side. Despite there being a pair of guns, there was was only space for one gunner. Sarah was in the cupola, ready to move from gun to gun or, at a stretch, fire both at once. "You ready?" Georges asked her.

Sarah tapped the combined ear piece and microphone she wore. Georges took the hint, and put on the one he had been wearing around his neck. "I'm ready." Sarah said when Georges had turned his radio on. "Fabien?"

Sarah could have just looked forward to see if Fabien was in position, but she wanted to test the radios. He was in a cupola on top of the truck cab, armed with a machine gun as big as Maxine's, aiming it ahead of them. "I'm ready. Remy? Justine?"

"The batteries are fully charged, the turbine is idling and the fuel tanks are full." Remy replied.

"I have control of the buggy, and I'm ready to roll." Justine said. "I don't know how long until these goggles make me vomit, though." She was controlling the buggy, but she was doing it remotely, from the truck's cab, getting the view from the smaller vehicle through virtual reality.

"Before we set off, we should test fire all the big guns, just to check." Maxine said. There was no hiding the anticipation in her tone.

"Short bursts." Remy advised. "Let's not waste ammunition or risk alerting them too early."

Maxine's machine gun was already primed, so she immediately let loose a three shot burst, the heavy rounds shattering bricks in the rubble of the factory. Sarah shot a burst from her right hand side gun, but hadn't made it to the left one before Fabien fired his big gun. It was a surprise when there was a short chatter of fire from the buggy's gun, even though they had all known it was armed.

"Okay then, let's go." Remy eased power to all the truck's wheels, and it started rolling slowly. Fabien had taken down the arch over the gate, just in case there wasn't enough clearance, so Georges could remain standing, getting accustomed to the sway of the vehicle. When they were outside the factory walls, the buggy zipped ahead of them.