Survival: After It Happened Book 1 (11 page)

Dan slept until he heard the door of the Land Rover being opened. Neil greeted him with coffee, and was awkwardly offering him one of his own cigarettes.

He shuffled in his sleeping bag towards to tail gate and sat, rubbing his eyes. He took a gulp of the coffee and lit the cigarette. A few more seconds passed before he could make words “Breakfast?” he asked with a questioning inflection.

Neil laughed “I had mine about five hours ago, boyo!” he boomed in a Welsh valleys accent. Dan was confused.

“Lunch will be in about half an hour mate. Nobody wanted to wake you, so I got volunteered because they all thought I was the least likely person to get shot”

Dan took a moment to process that; he’d slept from dusk until lunchtime without stirring. He felt guilty, and also worried that things needed doing and the group would have wasted a morning without direction.

He needn’t have worried, Penny had roused them all in silence at breakfast, and they had agreed quietly to leave Dan where he was. Neil was up, a little tired but functioning, and Lexi returned reporting a quiet night. She went to get her head down for a few hours and was still up before him.

Penny had deployed the girls into the house to start emptying, cleaning and occupying rooms. Already the trailer was full of bedding and rubbish which needed taking to the still smouldering bonfire that Dan could smell. The men had been set to emptying the stores onto the shelves in the small warehouse attached to the kitchens, the bedding and clothing removed to a room in the house and laid on tables in approximate size order. By the time Dan finished his caffeine and nicotine wake up and slid his feet into his boots, the second of the three small lorries was almost empty.

Penny breezed him along with her for a tour, starting as they entered the main door.

“Your offices” she said, indicating the security office on their right. Dan thought this was a good idea; maps on the wall and tasks/targets on the white board. There was also a large cupboard at the far end with a sturdy lockable door; that had to be better than keeping an alarming amount of weaponry in the trailer. He realised with a flash of excitement that he hadn’t even had a chance to check the full contents yet.

They walked through to the main reception area which had been used as a temporary storage site for bags and boxes, then through to a large canteen complete with hot plate serveries. Already plans were being made to bring in one of the gas hob cookers as the kitchen was lacking in natural light – better to not use all their fuel on running generators – and gas tanks were in good supply if you went to the right places.

They went through the kitchen – well stocked with large pots and pans – and into the stores area. Dan was impressed that they had enough food and water to last a few weeks and plenty of space for more stock.

Back inside, Penny led him upstairs.

“Single men” she announced pointing to a large dormitory where Kyle and Liam were looking through and clearing away the personal effects of the previous occupants. There were eight single beds and accompanying large lockers.

“Smaller dormitories have been kept aside for married couples” she indicated a room where Maggie was arranging two single beds to make one double. He noticed curious marks on the floor and realised that someone must have used a heavy socket and wrench set to take out the large bolts holding it down. He thought that the new occupants were trusted not to use the beds as barricades, unlike the previous tenants.

At the very opposite end of the corridor Penny had placed the single females, pointing out that she added herself to this category for now to ensure proper behaviour. The room was being similarly sorted by a few of the girls. He was happy to see Alice sat on the bed with Leah whilst she folded clothes into bags for disposal. She seemed better; no longer catatonic with fear.

Other rooms were left as they were, as they weren’t in need of the space.

Yet, Dan hoped.

“I hope you don’t mind me setting myself apart, Penny” he said “but I’d like to find some quarters closer to the front door”

Penny didn’t object “There is a similar sized office opposite your new operations centre, perhaps you could take residence if there if you wished?” Dan thanked her and said he’d check it out.

‘Operations Centre’ he thought with a chuckle to himself, Penny did love to give formal titles to everyone and everything. He’d probably wake up to a carved plaque outside his door indicating the primary residence of the First Ranger.

Dan walked back to the main reception room with Penny and was shown through to a nurse’s office. Kate had wasted no time at all, and had already set up a field hospital and had started to turn the waiting area into a ward. Boxes and boxes of looted medication were waiting to be sorted and stored. Kate was tending to Mike, who had been moved inside on the ambulance stretcher – mental note, a few beds need bringing to their new hospital suite – who was propped up and awake. Kate was feeding him sips of what smelled like soup.

Kate smiled when she saw them, and introduced them.

“Mike, this is Dan. The one who found you and Alice and brought you back” she beamed proudly.

Mike’s eyes glazed a little, but he tried his hardest to straighten up and offer a firm hand to Dan. He was desperately weak and clearly in lots of pain. Kate had spent all night gluing and binding his wounds. He really needed stitches, but what little suture equipment Kate had already found was not enough. Mike was going to have a lot of scars, but he and Alice were alive.

“Thankyou” Mike croaked as he winced and shook Dan’s hand. He repeated it again three times and just didn’t know what else to say yet.

“Rest now Mike” Kate said and turned to Dan “I’ve given him pain meds which should knock him out soon. He needs to stay in here for probably a week until he can move”

Dan nodded to her, and asked if she needed help.

“Not yet, but if you find a surgeon or another paramedic or a GP or a long-legged blonde model then PLEASE bring them to me. Gagged and bound if needs be!” she said with a crooked smile.

Dan laughed and promised to do that. He noticed how Penny was perplexed by the blonde model comment, but too polite to allow herself to ask.

He opened the door to what would be his own room, and found it full of boxes. He pulled them out and opened them using his knife, finding brand new quilted blankets. He grabbed the next two people to walk past, Adam and Cedric, and asked them to pile them in the reception room as he opened them all to check the contents. The blankets would need to go into a bedroom somewhere, and the boxes would be useful for scavenging.

Once his room was empty, he sorted out the few bits of furniture. The large office desk and chair were pushed into the corner to give more floor space, and he brought in his own kit from the Land Rover. He had two large sash windows which could be opened up to almost head height – useful for defence. And smoking.

He set up his camp cot, not having the energy to find a metal framed bed and carry it down, threw down his roll mat and sleeping bag before adding a couple of the new blankets to the pile.

Dan opened the cupboards and removed armfuls of ring binders containing reports on inmate activity and working hours. Useful fire lighting for the future, but the folders would be useful to compile reports in his ‘operations centre’, he chuckled again at himself as he was starting to be infected by Penny’s terminology.

His spare clothes were stacked onto the shelves, along with toiletries and water. Two bottles of single malt were tucked in there too, along with numerous cartons of cigarettes. He walked through to the office opposite, and started to pull down all the posters and notices, piling them on the central desk. All the CCTV monitors were useless, but removing them was more hassle than it was worth and besides, they may find someone who could get them working again. All this paper went outside onto the rubbish trailer which gave Dan an involuntary shudder when he remembered the last cargo he had moved with it. The cupboard was emptied and the bunches of keys that would open it were locked inside. He looked around for either Neil or Lexi, but couldn’t see either. Everyone was busy working on something under Penny’s instruction so he carefully carried every item from his trailer into the new armoury.

He rested all the long weapons against the wall and organised ammunition, attachments, cleaning equipment and other goodies on the shelves above.

He laid out the five ownerless Sig 9mm pistols on a shelf directly in front, with the boxes of appropriate ammo and spare magazines to the side. He wanted nothing more than to find another few people that he could trust to carry these. He decided to strip and clean his weapons and relax the magazines which occupied him for twenty minutes and allowed him some time to think. He left the carbine and his body armour on his bed, tucking the Sig into his waistband in the small of his back and putting a spare mag in the left leg pocket of his combat trousers. Already he felt safer and more relaxed.

He did the rounds of all the rooms again, talking with people as he went. Jimmy and Kev were busy sorting the stores out with Andrew. Things were being placed on the right shelves for easy access, short dates at the front and longer dates at the back. Kev seemed happy lugging boxes and bags for life full of looted stuff from the lorries, as did Ian.

Andrew was sorting toiletries and non-food stores to a separate pile, and Dan saw Adam and Jay walk in, pick up a box each and disappear back into the house. Shortly after, Liam walked past carrying large bags of unwanted contents from the rooms towards the trailer. An effective machine was turning, and Dan realised he had had very little to do with it. He walked back outside and lit a fag as he wandered round to the side where he heard noises. He found Neil busily setting up four generators on pallets to keep them off the floor. Neil was hammering long nails into more pallets to create a kind of box to protect them. He saw Dan and gestured towards the pile of heavy canvas tarpaulins.

“Gotta keep these babies healthy” he said. Jerrycans were lined up to the side, marked with green stripes of spray paint, and wires were coming from the back in a series of snakes. Neil’s Land Rover had been turned into a kind of mobile workshop and the back was full of tools.

“I’ve been up the farm” he said “Ana’s there seeing to the animals and stuff” he saw Dan’s face and raised a hand to calm him “Lexi is with her”

He didn’t voice his now void argument, and Neil continued.

“Red diesel tank up there, half full. I’ve topped off the 4x4’s and trucks from our tanker and emptied the rest into the farm tank. It’s still not full.” He said with a smile, which Dan took to mean that they had lots of diesel.

“I’ve rigged a hand pump to it and knocked off the locks, just make sure you hang up the hose after you use it!” he seemed pleased with himself.

“Nice work, mate” said Dan “what’s the best way to fill it up again then?” he asked.

Neil gestured for him to walk to the tanker. He saw that the smallest generator had been securely attached to the chassis of the trailer using a series of lorry straps. It seemed that Neil had rigged his pump system to go mobile now – all they had to do was remove the locks to petrol station reservoir tanks, drop in the hose and pump it all out into the tanker. He also showed him the two hand pumps he had constructed to siphon petrol separately for the generators.

“I’m impressed!” said Dan sincerely “I don’t know if we should use all our fuel keeping the lights on here though” Neil agreed but wanted the electricity supply to be ready for when it was needed.

He lit another cigarette, slapped Neil on the back and wandered towards the house. He sat in the office, he couldn’t refer to it as ‘Operations’ without feeling ridiculous, and picked up pen and paper. He started to write a list of priority supplies to get their new home up and running:

Chemical toilets, as they had lost theirs when they fled in the night. Gas tanks for cooking, more fuel, medical supplies – Kate needed to be escorted to a hospital to scavenge as much as possible. Bedding, though not really a priority, but all the quilts and pillows they could find would be nicer than prison blankets. They would also need clothing and boots in all sizes.

Food wasn’t really an issue as they had brought plenty, not counting the commercial stores they found at the prison. There was also still fresh meat there as the freezers were sealed tight; they were good enough to keep things cold and fresh without electricity.

Getting the creature comforts right was important. He thought of a mass shopping trip the next day, vowing to only scavenge to the north for the foreseeable future. He remembered where the commercial van lot was he found with Leah, and decided to stop off there for a couple of vans.

The plan formed in his head, poured out onto his paper and was rewritten twice over. He planned on taking most of the group with him tomorrow for a fire sale; everything must go. Three full lorries, a few full vans, trailers… one big hit that should set them up for a while without having to leave home.

Well, Dan would but the majority could stay and settle. He looked up to see Lexi walking in with Ana. He waved her in and mockingly introduced her to the ‘Ops Centre’. She gave him a puzzled look, but sat down with him anyway. He suggested she relax her magazines and clean her weapons which she did under instruction. She shut her rifle and body armour into the cupboard and kept the Glock with her as Dan had with his Sig. He told her of his plans for tomorrow and showed her a few locations of a map.