Authors: Justin Gowland
I sat down at Rees and Mary’s table and Rees laughed and said “Ha Ha, Busted!”
“Are you sure you want to go there buddy.” I said.
He went quiet very quickly and cast a glance at Mary, who sat there with a happy looking smile on her face.
(yeah, thought that might shut his gob.)
“Are you ok to go bud?” Said Marc coming down the stairs, putting his sword into its sheath on his back.
“Not yet, Maddie is making me a cup of tea, and speak of the devil.” I said as Maddie came out of the kitchen with a mug of tea in one hand a can of coke in the other.
“Jay, I always wanted to ask you what is this thing about you and cups of tea?” Asked Mary.
“What? Walker and tea! I’ll tell you what it’s all about. We were in basic training and he had pissed the training Sargent off for about the tenth time. This time he had gone and got a cup of coffee whilst on guard duty without asking. So the Sargent thinks this is right time to get this little turd to fall in line. He made Walker drink a full urn of coffee over about an hour. I swear the we could hear his poor stomach sloshing and burbling from the other side of the barracks. He ended up pissing it all out in about the same time it took him to drink it. Since then he won’t drink coffee, even if it was the last thing to drink he won’t touch it. Believe me when he was in the Army we tried.” Rees said laughing.
“Yeah, good times. You twat!” I said, laughing.
Maddie stood behind me and put her hands on my shoulders and I leaned my head against her arm.
“You and the boys are going to be ok out there, aren’t you?” She asked.
“We should be Simon said there were only a few on the island. Being on the safe side Rees and I will take our rifles, I’ll give Marc a pistol. We should be covered enough.” I said.
“Can I have a gun please?” Said Simon.
“Mate, I will personally give you a gun when you show me you can be responsible enough to use one.” Said Rees
“Marc, you still got that baseball bat?” I asked.
“Yeah, it’s in my room, I’ll go get it.” He ran back upstairs and was back quickly. He gave the bat to Simon.
I drank my tea and we all stood and went through the routine of checking what we had and that our spare mags were in place. I gave Maddie a soft kiss on the lips and took the point to the main gate. As we walked through I saw Derek measuring the wall where we wanted the backstop for the pistol range.
We waved at him and went down to the gate and lifted the bar from its place. I lifted my rifle to my shoulder and Rees pulled the gate open and I went out. What instantly hit me was the breeze and the smell of the sea. With me on point and Rees bringing up the rear we walked down the steps to where the vehicles were parked. They didn’t look like they had been disturbed in any way, whilst we were in the castle.
With the island, mostly comprising of sand dunes and wide open areas. We could probably see anything coming at us for a good two or three hundred meters, at least till we got into the village. Walking down the road that took us to the village we saw gulls and other sea birds in the air. As we walked Rees was asking Simon questions as to which buildings he had searched. He told us that he had searched the first seven buildings nearest to the castle, but because he had to deal with the two Reapers he had not managed to get any further into the village. The reason he had seen the shop was because he had ran past it when he first got on the island. Rees, then asked about the boat that Simon had got the island on. Simon had managed to get the boat from a private house on the mainland, it was just a small boat with an outboard motor. It had been beached on the other side of the village on the side facing the mainland.
We came to the first houses and we could see the doors were left open and sand had been blown inside. We split into two, on the left was myself and Simon on the other side Marc and Rees. Slowly working our way up the road we checked each house. After about six houses we started to find the ones where Simon had not had the chance to scavenge from.
We stood looking across the road at each other and I said “Rees, why don’t you and Marc check out these houses and I’ll take Simon and we will go check out the village shop.”
“You sure you want to do that bud?”Said Marc.
“Yeah, if there had been any Reapers around, we would have had a fight by now.” I replied.
“Walker, be careful and take your time and remember to check your six.” Said Rees.
“It shouldn’t take us long to check it out, if it is the same size as these houses.”
“Ok, we’ll catch up when we can.” Said Rees.
I waved to them and with Simon walked up the main road to the shop. I noticed that it the houses round the shop, looked like they hadn’t had anyone staying in them for a while. I looked inside the front shop to the window and could see the shelves were stocked with a lot of cans and dry goods. That would help us out a lot, we had brought food and supplies with us but nearly enough.
I tried the door and of course it was locked, standing back, I kicked the door and it shook in its frame. Kicking again, I could feel the door give a little more. With one more kick the door sprang open and bounced back off the wall inside. Pushing the door I went in first with my rifle up covering the interior. Simon came in behind me and moved over to my side and I could see him out the corner of my eye. Moving toward the back of the shop and a beaded entrance into the back.
I was about to tell Simon to hang back when there was a sudden pain at the back of my head and I fell forward. I rolled over and there was Simon with a smile on his face and said “Take my castle well, I am going to fucking take your life!”
He raised his bat above head and was bringing it down to crush my head. When his head disappeared in a red mist of blood, bone and brain. As his body fell to the side and the bat clattered to the floor I saw Marc with his pistol at arm’s length.
“Never did trust that little fuck!” He said.
All I could say was “Aw, bollocks not a fucking…..” and darkness stretched out its hand and pulled me down.
There was a small village that lay at the bottom of the hill, but the thing that caught my eye was the mass of Reapers moving between the houses. There was the odd bang of a weapon being fired and a lot of screaming.
The Queen stood with the breeze caressing her naked skin. She/I stood watching the Reapers tearing and eating their way through everyone left in the village. After a while they came running through the tall grass up to where there Queen was standing.
I recognized the Reaper that came to stand before the Queen.
“Your Majesty, we have cleaned the stain, but there was no sign of the creature you want.” Said Mathleic
I could feel the anger simmering under the Queens cool exterior.
“It cannot have gone far from the place we cleansed four nights ago.We have seen many of our brothers and sisters that were slain by the creature.” Mathleic said.
“This one that we are looking for is a treacherous one, and we have lost many trying to find it. We may lose more of our brood before we can exact our revenge on it.” Said the Queen.
“My Queen, what do we care for this one thing, there are many others that we can eat and there are others that we can give the gift of the brood too.” Said Mathleic.
A low gurgling growl came from the Queens throat, Mathleic went down on his knees and placed his forehead on the floor.
“I mean no disrespect your Majesty.” Apologized Mathleic.
The growl ceased and the Queen stood looking of her brood of Reapers covered in blood and gore. The look of the food dripping from her subjects claws was making her hungry.
“I can feel the thing we are chasing is near, but its scent has changed so that we cannot follow. We will have our justice from it.” Said the Queen.
She turned her back to the village at the base of the hill and moved into the trees that lined the top of the hill.
I started to feel the pull of that darkness again, and I went willingly. I felt a slap on my cheek and slowly opened my eyes a crack, the light stabbed my eyes.
I groaned and said “What the fuck? Where the hell am I?”
I heard a rumbling laugh, “Walker, how the hell do you get into these things man?” it was Rees.
I opened my eyes more and saw him standing over me, with Marc in the background. Marc looked very pale and was shaking slightly.
“Ok, so I am lying on the floor, in what looks like a shop what happened?” I said.
“Well, from what I can tell Simon just tried to kill you with Marc’s baseball bat!” Rees replied.
It started to come back to me, I could remember Simon stood over me with the baseball bat and then his head disappearing in a blast of red mist.
“Why the hell was he trying to kill me, we had only just met!”
Marc’s shaking voice said, “I thought he was up to something, his face changed when you said that you were going to check out the shop with just him. So I followed, I walked in just as he was about to hit you again. I shot him Jay, he was just a kid and I killed him. He was going to kill you and I had to shoot him.” He started to cry and I felt for him.
I could feel a low thumping feeling at the back of my head and lifted my hand to feel the lump on the back.
“I don’t think anything is broken or that you have a concussion, his first hit must have just glanced your head and put you on the floor. I heard a bang and came straight in to see Marc stood over the little shits body.” Said Rees.
“How long have I been out?” I asked.
“Not long about five minutes.” He replied.
“If you can help me get up it might be an idea to get Marc back to the castle and he can have a rest.” I said holding out my arm for Rees to help me up. I got to my feet wobbled a little as the room span, but that went fairly quickly. I looked round and the wall nearest to me had been painted in the blood and brains of Simon. His body must have bounced off the shop counter, then landed at my feet. Half of his face had been blown off his remaining eye was hanging out of the socket and touching the ground. What little brain that was left was mixing with the blood that was slowly running from his veins. It pooled under his head and had started to spread out in a red sticky circle.
I picked up the bat and using it to steady myself walked out of the shop and into the cool air outside.
“Come on, let’s get Marc back to the castle.” I said and we turned our backs on the scene in the shop and walked back. I had no doubt that we would have to return to get the food and supplies the shop had, but that could be done another day.