Authors: Justin Gowland
“Rees you don’t know how to fly a plane, do you?” said Marc.
I turned and looked at him, then at Rees and shook my head.
“Marc, I know you think me and Walker are these Spec Ops dudes, and that we can do everything. But to answer your question, no I fucking don’t know how to fly a plane, and any case that one wouldn’t be able to carry all of us.” He said and started to move the car in and out of the stalled and abandoned cars. I could hear him mumbling to himself as he drove and I had to turn my head, otherwise he would fly off the handle at the sight of my grinning face.
“Well, I didn’t know.” Said Marc.
I had to put my hand on Rees’s arm to stop him from turning round and strangling my brother.
“Marc, before you put your other foot in it, why don’t you pass out something to eat and some water.” I said.
Grumbling, he passed out some breakfast bars and bottles of water. We drove through the underpass and further to the east of Durham trying to stay on the back roads. We came to a couple of run down looking houses on a back road that seemed to have not been lived in for quite a while. I told Rees to pull round the back of them to where we couldn't be seen from the road. I climbed out and grabbed my rifle and lifted it to my shoulder and had a quick look round where we had parked. I couldn't see anything that was strange or out of the ordinary.
"Rees you want to come and have a look round with me?" I asked.
"Yeah, give me a sec to get my gear." He replied.
I checked my rifle and made sure that I was carrying extra mags in my webbing. Mary, Becky and Marc picked up the shotguns and one of the remaining rifles. Looking inside the Land Rover, I said "If you lot want to stay here and this place works out ok, we can use it as our camp for tonight and head out early. Please don't follow us inside, if you hear any shooting, but if you hear one of us tell you to drive, don’t argue just drive ok!"
They all nodded, but Maddie looked like she was about to cry.
Rees and I walked over to the door and we both chambered rounds. I stood to the right of the back door to one of the houses with my rifle at the ready. Rees strode up with his pistol up and his rifle on his sling across his chest. He looked at me to check that I was ready and I nodded for him to go ahead and open the door. He placed his hand on the door handle and tried to open the door, but it seemed to be locked. Ok, time to try the other time old method for door entry. I pointed at my foot, then the door and Rees nodded, leaned back and gave the door one of the hardest kicks I have ever seen. The door fairly few open and hit the inside wall with a shudder and the frame seemed to shake in the wall.
Before the door had stopped shaking, I was inside and to the left of the entrance with my rifle up and scanning round the room. We had come into the kitchen and from the looks of the state inside it hadn't been used in a long time. The cupboards all had doors hanging off and the benches had what looked like at least a couples of inches of dust. Moving further into the room so that Rees could have more room and would be able to have better arcs of fire. Rees moved past slowly to the only door out of the kitchen. He pointed at himself, then at me. He pushed his foot against the bottom of the door and slowly opened it enough that he could move through without getting caught up on the door or the frame.
I heard him move down the hallway and I let my rifle fall down onto it's sling and I pulled my Browning from my holster and followed him into the next room. This room was not much better than the kitchen, the carpet was threadbare and the curtains at the window were hanging from the rail and the window was grimy and we could hardly seen through it. Again the theme of the kitchen, followed into this room with the dust and dirt. We went into the hallway and both stood at the bottom of the stairs. Rees placed his foot on the bottom stair and I smiled at him, and he flipped the middle finger at me and slowly went up the stairs. (we had this little thing between us since we had done basic house clearing training. It was who ever had put a foot on the bottom step of any house we were clearing, had the task of clearing the upstairs, whilst the other guarded the ground floor.)
I stood at the bottom of the stairs listening to Rees move around up stairs, clearing the bedroom and the bathroom. I heard creaking at the top of the stairs and looked up to see Rees was standing looking down.
"Everything is clear up here, buddy. There isn't even any furniture up here, let alone bodies." He said.
"To be honest, I don't think that there have been anyone living here in years. It should be ok for us to crash here for the night without any problems." I replied.
He started down the stairs and I went through to the back of the house and outside. I went outside and waved the others to get out of the Land Rover. They climbed out and came over to where I was standing.
"I wouldn't call it the Ritz or anything like the cottage, but it should do for tonight. I think we should all set up in the front room that way we can stand guard easier. Just bring the basic gear we will need for tonight." I said
"Ok, we will get started on that Jay." Said Becky.
I walked over to the Land Rover and opened the passenger door and Ghost jumped down and ran into the long grass to do what dogs do best. (yup, shit where he wants to.) I sat on the lip of the foot well, with my back against the seat and sighed. Maddie heard the sigh from the back of the Land Rover, walked over and placed a soft hand on my shoulder.
"Are you feeling ok?" She asked.
"Not too bad, just wish I hadn't brought them to the cottage." I answered.
"That wasn't anything to do with you, that bitch Bet was the one that caused it all. Everyone here is behind all the choices you made, you were trying to help those people and they threw it back in your face." She replied.
“It doesn’t make me feel any better because I made a bad choice for us all and it didn’t work out. Anyway, lets get sorted and have some rest and food, we may be on the road for a while tomorrow. I doubt we will make Holy Island the way the roads have been, but you never know.” I said, standing up and taking her hand, I gave her a soft kiss and walked inside the house.
Maddie followed me inside and was about to close the door when Ghost shot through the opening and into the kitchen. That bloody dog is going to end up giving me a heart attack one of these days.
We closed the door and I managed to use a large cupboard door to wedge the door shut, because the kick Rees had given it, had launched part of the lock across the room and lodged it in the wall. That blokes legs were like steam pistons and the power he had in them cold be scary sometimes. Maddie walked through into the small front room, I followed to find everyone spreading out sleeping bags and creating sleeping areas for themselves. Rees entered from the hallway to the stairs and closed the door, he spread his sleeping bag along the door. That way, if anyone tried to enter through that door, they would have to either go through him or over him.
“Right I will take the first four hour watch if you could take the second Marc and Rees you take the last, that way we all get some sleep tonight. Rees I’ll do the driving first thing tomorrow that way you can get some shut eye in the car. Get some food in you guys and we can then try and get some sleep.”
Food and water were passed round and everyone sat and ate quietly. As usual, my loud mouth brother was the one to open his gob. “Mary, did you know that they all knew each other?”
Mary looked up from her can of Baked Beans and looked at Marc a short while before answering, “I had my suspicions about Bet and John, they seemed to argue like they were an old married couple but never put things together. Dave and Jamie turned up in that van with the two young girls a couple of days after Bet. They never seemed to talk with her and John, so I again it just didn’t register that they were related. I suppose the way those two always did what Bet wanted should have made me think more. But with things as they are I just wanted to survive.
The day you drove past, it was like all men to the pumps. They seemed to go into overdrive and I thought that they may have tried to kill you and take your stuff away. That Dave came up with the idea of using the van to block the road if you came back that way. When Jamie saw you coming it was like cats on a hot tin roof, they couldn’t move quick enough. Bet had gone with Jamie just in case she needed to control the situation, and it ended up being that way. Because Dave nearly shit his self when…. What do I call you Jay or Walker?” She asked.
I smiled slightly and said “Most friends call me Jay and the lads I was in the Army with called me Walker, so Jay would be fine.”
“Well, like I was saying Dave nearly shit his self when he saw Jay come out of the Land Rover carrying that assault rifle. I think when you told Bet there was no way you would give them any weapons, it put a spanner in the works. Then you told her about your sanctuary, she must have thought fast on her feet for her to be able to make another plan. I never actually saw her talking to anyone after we had found out about your injury. That being said, she sort of ruled the apartments like she was the queen or something.”
"Thanks for letting us know that Mary and we also appreciate that you wanted to come with us." I said.
She lowered her head and said in a quiet voice "I saw the way you and your friends had sorted out the cottage. And the way you were all looking out for each other. That’s what I wanted and the way that lot from the apartments were going on about things. I never wanted your group to think of me that way."
Sitting with my back to the wall I started eating my food and Maddie came to sit beside me. She rested her head on my shoulder and we sat together watching everyone settling down for the night. Rees watched Mary get comfortable on her side, whilst drinking her water. I saw something pass over my friend’s face and I couldn't place it because it was something I had never seen on his face. He placed his rifle next to him as he lay back and closed his eyes.
Shaking my head, I looked at Maddie to see that she was fast asleep. Gently moving out from under her I slowly lowered her down onto my sleeping bag. I went to stand in the kitchen looking out the back window at the slowly setting sun. After a short while all I could hear from the front room was heavy breathing. The kitchen window was covered in dirt and I could hardly see out over where we had parked the Land Rover.
During my time on lookout I moved from the kitchen to stand in the doorway every half hour so I could check on everyone. The second time I went to look in on them, I nearly burst out laughing. Marc had been lying on his back, snoring and Becky wasn't too happy about it, so she elbowed him in the ribs, which caused him to sit up, like someone had put electricity to his balls. He grumbled and lay back down on his side and was softly breathing as I turned back into the kitchen.
My time was up and nothing had happened so I went in and shook Marc awake. He grunted and turned to look at me like I had a second head.
"Your turn bud, remember you need to wake Rees up in about four hours." I said.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure he doesn't fall back asleep or fuck up." Said Becky, rolling over.
"You sure you want to help him Becky?" I said.
"Fuck you bud." Marc mumbled, rubbing his eyes.
I smiled and walked over and lay down next to Maddie on my sleeping bag. I put my head down on my arm and was asleep nearly straight away. No dreams came to me as I slept which to be honest was ok with me.
Chapter Eleven
My eyes opened and it was still dark and I had a feeling I.....no we were being watched. I stood and walked into the kitchen to see Rees looking out the back window into the darkness.
Turning, he said softly, "I was just going to come and get you Walker. There is something out there watching the house, I have a feeling it's a group of Reapers. I keep seeing a flash of yellow every once in a while."
"What do you think we should do?" I asked.
"What I wouldn't give for some kind of night vision. To be honest, they haven't come anywhere near the house. I just wish we could see them, if it was up to ten I would have said lets kick their arses. But there could be any amount of them out there, and with only having the two assault rifles I don’t like the idea of us going outside to take them on."
"How long till sun up?" I asked.
He lifted his wrist and snapped the cover off his watch and said "Should be about an hour maybe less."
Looking out through the window I noticed that someone had wiped some of the dirt and grime off the window, and I could just make out the shape of the Land Rover in the dark.
"Think it might be a good idea if I stop up the rest of the night, just in case anything happens between now and first light." I said.
"Should we wake everyone else?" He asked.
"I think we can let them sleep, if we need to we can have them up and armed before the Reapers can get inside."