Survival: After It Happened Book 1 (15 page)

Dan considered their numbers over a solitary scotch, musing that they simply did not have enough to survive in the long run.

“Time and motion, boy” Dan’s Dad had always told him. He always tried to combine his tasks to maximise efficiency. To that end, he told Lexi to drive to the nearest town centre to find the public library that Leah had found in her yellow pages. She drove her Land Rover, asking for and receiving tips on her technique.

“Keep your thumbs outside the wheel” he said at one point “If you hit a big pothole or something the wheel can pull and hurt you” she nodded and folded her thumbs on the outside. She scanned as she drove, as she had seen him do.

They arrived at the town centre and drove through slowly. Dan noticed that already the rubbish swirled along and gathered against walls and kerbs. It probably wouldn’t be long before nature started taking back what people had taken first, and mused that the roads would degrade fairly quickly too – especially when the weather got bad. Another reason for choosing the best 4x4xFar.

The library was unlocked, and a pull on the door let out a nauseating smell. Dan held up a hand and went back to the Land Rover for his bag. He came back to Lexi with chewing gum and two paper masks. Lexi was puzzled at first, but followed suit and started to chew three pieces behind her mask. It worked, and the smell of rotting body was diluted by mint. As they had agreed, Dan led and Lexi watched. He moved at a slight crouch using his Sig, as Lexi would be using her Glock to do the same job. He cleared the aisles of books, nodding directions to Lexi as he went. They found two bodies, not worth checking for breathing as they were visibly starting to decompose. The systematic search continued, Lexi mirroring Dan’s movements in silence. He finally holstered the Sig on his chest and turned to her. “Questions?” he asked, trying to keep his tone professional and not encourage intimacy.

“What did you do on the corners?” she said. He drew his weapon again, still with the safety on, and talked her through it.

“Approach the corner, take a step out from the wall. Eyes and gun always point the same way. Step round slowly and the blind area will open up. Always keep scanning for any height advantage someone could have over you”

“Got it” she said.

They split up and searched the shelves for manuals and textbooks. They found medical texts, guides on growing crops and two books on solar panels. Dan wasn’t sure if it was the right thing, but it was all they found. Lexi brought back a book on high frequency radio signals and radio operating. It looked like an old book to Dan, but then again so was the skill in the modern age of satellites and computers.

With a box of books in the back of the Land Rover, they locked it and took their weapons for a check of the indoor shopping area after using a small pry bar to force the automatic doors. The bar went down the back of Dan’s vest in case they needed it again.

The normal shops were all there, shrouded in an eerie sense of emptiness. He held up a hand to stop Lexi, indicating with two fingers pointed at his eyes that she should stay and keep watch. He went into card shop, returning within thirty seconds. Lexi wanted to ask, but didn’t want to look stupid so she kept quiet. They walked onwards slowly, Lexi trying to impress by showing that she was covering the corners and blind spots.

He felt relatively safe and was happy to watch Lexi demonstrate the skills she was mimicking; skills that he had learned by repetition and constant yelling of ‘BANG – YOU’RE DEAD’ over and over whenever he got it slightly wrong.

They found a small army surplus shop, one that advertised a lot of airsoft and paintball. They took large rucksacks and filled them with holsters, facemasks, goggles, smaller bags and some survival equipment. Dan thought Neil would be happy with a holster that wasn’t on his thigh.

They took some webbing similar to their own, but not modern military level stuff like theirs. The vague smell permeated everywhere, not strong but they couldn’t see any bodies as yet. They found a large Primark, and Lexi managed a small grin.

“Underwear and clothes for the kid?” she suggested to him. He nodded before moving into the store.

They retraced their steps to the Land Rover after a while longer, to find two young men looking in the windows. They hadn’t noticed them yet, and Dan waved Lexi off to the right to get another angle on them.

He raised his carbine and stalked forward along the building line. He glanced to the right to see Lexi behind a pillar on one knee, covering the pair.

He watched them, listening.

“It wasn’t here yesterday” said one of them

“Well where are they then?” replied the other

Dan guessed they were mid-twenties, both looked fairly fit.

“Stand still” Dan called out confidently, without investing the command with much threat so as not to scare them.

In spite of his slightly gentler tone, both men visibly jumped in fright, and turned towards the sound of his voice. They put their hands up and both started to speak at once.

“Hold on!” shouted Dan, but kindly. He lowered his weapon and walked towards them slowly, knowing that Lexi would have him covered and being careful not to get in between her and them.

“I’m Mark said the first man” he pointed to the slightly bigger man and introduced him as Joe.

“Put your hands down boys, I’m not going to shoot you” Dan said, leaving out the fact that Lexi would if the need arose.

“What’s your story?” he asked Mark. Both seemed frozen to the spot still. Joe managed a shop up the road, a cash convertors place, and said that they had heard their car earlier. It turned out they had argued about whether to go out of the shop for a while, before deciding to introduce themselves.

Dan was going to unlock the Land Rover, until he realised that it was Lexi’s and she still had the keys.

He turned towards her and gestured with his head for her to join them. Both Mark and Joe seemed shocked to see another heavily armed person appear.

Joe asked “Are you from the military?”

Mark said “Is there still a government?”

“No and we don’t know” said Dan. He introduced himself, then Lexi.

He asked what they had been doing for the last week and Joe told their story.

“Me and Mark have been in my shop, living off stuff we’ve found here” he said. Both looked unwashed and bearded, and it seemed they were both waiting for someone to come and tell them what to do. Neither seemed to accept that this was permanent.

Dan responded with a brief version of their own history, and explained their new setup. Both Mark and Joe seemed impressed and relieved. The formal invite came from Lexi, who had adopted a confident approach as she saw her own standing rising higher as more people joined.

Joe couldn’t keep his eyes off their equipment, and finally asked “M16’s?”

“M4’s. Long story” said Dan “You have any experience?” he asked.

“Tried and failed. Asthma as a kid. Done some shooting; paintball and stuff” He said

Dan chalked up another potential Ranger to take the pressure off.

“What about you?” he asked Mark

“Never. I’m a PE teacher in high school. I was, anyway” he replied.

“Jump in then lads, you’re in if you want” said Dan as he climbed into the passenger seat, wound down the window and lit a smoke.

They drove back and dropped the two new arrivals off, where Penny greeted them warmly and took them in for feeding and washing. He said he was heading back out again, and told Lexi she should do the same on her own. She looked disappointed not to be staying with him, but agreed.

Dan decided to push out into the more rural areas from the prison, checking the farms for equipment and people.

He decided to leave messages at some, hidden away from the road, hopeful to recruit some farmers to their cause. As he rested for a short time having a smoke, he heard barking. He walked across the road to look downhill. The noise was coming from the bottom corner of the hill where the field met a dense patch of woodland. He opened the gate to the empty field and walked back to the Land Rover. He drove slowly down the hill with the windows opened. He killed the engine and listened when he reached the bottom. Definitely dogs barking on the other side of the woods. He looked at the map for a way to drive around, not just out of laziness but being sensible; why climb through woodland and risk injury or getting stuck?

He found a small track after a while on the ordnance survey map, realising that the way to it was actually past the prison on the road towards the town he had just been to.

Ten minutes later he was driving down that track, over the bridge where the water from their lake went, and onwards to a house and a series of low buildings. A sign announced that he was entering a kennels, and he should take care as police dogs are trained there. Interesting.

He pulled up by the house and got out. He left the carbine and took only his Sig as he walked around. A look through the window into the kitchen showed a man slumped on the table, dead over a week.

He heard the barking again, sounding more loudly now. He walked over to the outbuildings and what he saw made him feel sick with grief. Eight dogs had died in their kennels, with nobody to give them water. The stink of shit and piss was choking, and flies swarmed on the bodies. He walked along the line of closed cages close to tears, until he saw that the second to last in the line was empty. The wooden frame of this kennel had been chewed, destroyed in fact, and left a gap big enough for something to escape. He heard the barking again from outside.

He walked out and what he saw made his heart melt. A large dusty grey German shepherd puppy, was sat between him and his vehicle with huge paws splayed out. It saw him, cocked its head to one side with its disproportionately large, pointy ears up. Dan went to bend down and pat his legs, but the puppy responded instantly by standing and barking aggressively at him. Puppy or not, there were a lot of sharp teeth on show. It was almost grey, with patches of darker fur on its ears, muzzle and one paw. This dog looked thin and probably hadn’t eaten or days. At least it hadn’t died a torturous death by dehydration like the others. He froze, and the dog stopped again. He spoke to it, and the barking started.

Dan turned and went back into the kennels, coming back out with a sturdy leather lead. When he produced this the puppy sat and looked at him, wagging its tail in the dirt. Part trained then, good.

“COME” he said firmly and was rewarded with another cocked head look. An outside thought occurred to him, who tried “HIER”. To his amazement, it worked and the puppy trotted towards him. He had heard that some police forces had bought in part-trained dogs from Germany recently.

“SIT” he said, the dog sat.

Dan had barely spoken any German since school, and couldn’t believe either his luck or his memory of a language learned twenty years ago.

“FUβ” he said, and walked towards the Land Rover. The dog obediently walked to his left heel as he went. He laughed aloud and bent to stroke the dog, happy at this turn of fate. He snapped his hand back as the dog leapt away from him and became defensive again. He straightened up, shouting “NEIN. HALT” and laughed again as the dog reluctantly stopped.

No matter how you feel, conditioning takes over. He tried some more.

“SHTOPP” meaning stay, and walked around the dog in a circle before walking away a few metres.

“FUβ” he tried again, and the dog ran to his left side and followed him at heel. He had exhausted his current memory of German, and carefully went to put the lead around the dog’s neck. A low growl came out, but a further reprimand stopped the noise it in its throat.

He led the dog to the Land Rover and was lost for a command. “HUP!” he said, and the dog jumped in. “SHTOPP” has instructed again, leaving the lead on and the door open. He went back and took two large metal bowls and a bag of dried dog food which he slung over his shoulder. He threw them in the boot and walked to the passenger side where the dog sat, watching him.

He slowly raised the back of his hand. The dog sniffed it suspiciously, eyes wary. Dan saw that it was a he, and saw that he had no collar. With the beautiful colouring, he decided that his new best friend was called Ash.

He drove back to the prison and stopped on the farm. Ana waved at him, carrying a bucket of leftover food to the pigs.

He left Ash in the Land Rover, as he didn’t want to risk him biting anyone or chasing any of the animals. He wandered into the new workshop and saw Neil and Ian had been busy; a generator was set up to provide power and the spare wheels for the Defenders were stacked against one wall.

“Cooking on gas, my son!” Neil announced in a cockney accent when he saw him. Ian looked up and nodded a greeting.

“Met the new recruits?” Dan asked them, and described finding Mark and Joe earlier.

“How’s Lexi?” Neil asked with a smirk. Dan refused to rise to the bait. It wasn’t just him who had noticed it then. He changed the subject, “I’ve got a new assistant” he said, gesturing Neil to follow him outside.

His heart melted and he let out a large “Awww” sound when he saw Ash looking out of the driver’s side window at him.

“He’s no pet, I found him in a kennels where they trained police dogs” he warned. Neil said that he used to have a retired police dog, and had no problem with it.

Dan opened the door of the Defender, and took hold of Ash’s lead. “FUβ” he said, and Ash jumped down to walk at his left heel. He walked to Neil, stopping short and saying “SIT”

He looked at Neil and asked “Sprechen sie Deutsch?” with a smile

Neil didn’t, but he did launch into an impression of a German officer as he extolled the virtues of the dog. He went to stroke him at one point, and was rewarded with an angry salvo of barks.

“NEIN” shouted Dan, and Ash calmed down. “Give him time, mate. He’s had a rough week I think”

They said their goodbyes and Dan drove back down to the main house. He saw that some wooden pallets had been laid on the floor, three across and two deep, with tarpaulins fixed to the back. Jay had started felling a tree to the side of the main drive, wearing a hardhat with ropes coiled like snakes. He waved cheerily to Dan when he saw he was being watched. Liam was stood some distance back, seemingly on instructions, and waited for the tree to come down. He was holding a heavy set of long-handled loppers and a bow saw, ready to start taking branches off. That tree would take them a few days to sort, thought Dan.

He took Ash in the front door, greeting Leah as he walked in. She cried “YOU GOT A PUPPY” and ran towards him, just as Ash strained at the lead and barked at her. She shrieked, and stopped in her tracks. Dan repeated the advice he had given Neil, that he had been through a lot and wasn’t exactly a pet; he had been bred to bite people.

He took Ash into his room, folded two prison blankets in the corner of the room by his cot. He went back outside and brought in the bowls and food, laying them down as Ash started to sniff them desperately. He wolfed down a bowl of food and stopped only to switch to the bowl Dan was pouring water into from a bottle.

He left him there and went outside, shutting him in. He spent a few minutes with Leah, who had been busy making pretty lists covered in highlighter marks in pink and yellow and blue. She had lined up weeks’ worth of scavenging targets. Dan told her she had done a good job, and to take the afternoon off to play as it was nice outside. She skipped off, happy with the praise.

He stored his carbine and poured a cup of coffee from the dining room – penny had found some large insulated pump flasks which held boiling water and kept it hot for hours. He wandered into the medical wing to see Mike sat up in is makeshift hospital bed with his nose buried in the book about solar panels.

A notepad covered with scribbled notes was by his right leg and he tapped the pen against his teeth as he read. He smiled when he saw Dan and launched into a complex explanation of how he hoped to use the solar panels but ideally needed some scaffolding. Dan held up his hands to slow him down as he didn’t understand most of what he was saying.

“Plenty of time, Mike. Get your head around it and get better first” he said

He found Mark and Joe being given a tour by Penny. Both had washed and dressed in new clothes, combat trousers and tshirts over walking boots. Mark had shaved but Joe hadn’t. Dan rubbed his own chin and thought about growing a beard to save having to shave with cold water.

Penny greeted him warmly but formally in front of the new arrivals, congratulating him for bringing back two healthy recruits. Eve looked unhappy as she carried an armful of dirty clothes to a large wheeled cart, the young girl clinging to her trouser leg.

Jimmy and Kev had come back not long after him; they were unloading their latest shop with the help of Andrew who was directing them where he wanted things.

He went back to his room and could hear loud whining from Ash inside. Suddenly remembering that the puppy had barely eaten or drank for days, he thought he better take him outside on the lead. Ash made for the nearest car tyre and relieved himself before sniffing the ground and spinning on the spot. He finally decided to leave a steaming log at the first place he had sniffed before bouncing away, pleased with himself. Dan walked him down to the nearest sports field.

He made the dog sit, removed his lead and walked away telling him to stay. He decided to give commands in both English and German, to save having to be bi-lingual. He stopped and looked at Ash before throwing his arm out to the side and calling “GO”. Ash hesitated.

“VORAUS” he said, and the dog bolted off to the right, looking for the reason he had been sent. He sniffed the ground, looked up at Dan who called him back in “FUβ. HEEL” he said, and smiled when Ash ran to his left side, looking up at him.

Eat your heart out, Pete, he thought. In truth he knew it was cheating; someone else had already done the hard work in training this dog, he was looking good and reaping the benefits of it.

Pete returned a while later on foot with the dogs flitting around him. He was carrying two rabbits and five pigeons. He saw Dan’s new sidekick, and told his girls to stay as he approached. He held up his haul with a big smile.

“Plenty of vermin to eat” he said happily “these woods are full of pheasants too, but they’re breeding so I’ll leave them be until the numbers get high. No worry about these buggers though” he said, indicating his haul.

Dan thanked him, wishing that a rabbit and pigeon stew would be accompanied by fresh bread. Pete nodded to Ash, who gave him a look as though he was figuring out if he were edible.

“Found him at a kennels. He’d escaped but the others starved. Part trained police dog” Dan said, trying to sound casual despite his pride at having Ash beside him.

“Good dog” Pete said, holding his hand out. Ash didn’t bark, which surprised Dan. Instead he sniffed at Pete’s hands, getting a mixture of dead animals and other dogs. He must recognise a fellow dog lover, he thought.

Word of Ash had spread quickly, and people made noises fit for a puppy until they saw that the puppy had a genetically created bad attitude and sharp teeth. He put Ash back in his room so as not to excite him too much.

Cedric and Maggie returned not long after, excited at having found a commercial garden area with greenhouses and polythene tunnels. It seemed to be part of the prison, but was about a mile away and had more tractors, machinery and all the tools they needed. They said there was even a house there which they could look to move into if they needed. There were even two dozen sheep there, this year’s lambs Cedric reckoned, and a large animal trailer.

They had brought back another Land Rover they had found, towing a trailer of rotting veg which they dropped off at the farm for the pigs. They spoke excitedly to Penny, saying that they could grow potatoes and carrots there as well as salad vegetables. Penny agreed for them to be there full time, and promised them a helping pair of hands or five as soon as they were found. A huge sound erupted as they were talking, taking everyone by surprise, Dan instinctively reached for the Sig but relaxed when he saw that it was the large tree finally giving up and coming down to the ground.

The house buzzed with the excitement of the day’s news and new arrivals when Lexi returned last. He watched her drive towards the house, and saw at least two other heads in the Defender with her. She pulled up at the front and got out, looking proud but trying to keep it under control.

“Boss” she said “Meet Lizzie” as a woman climbed out of the passenger seat. Sarah smiled nervously at him. “And this is Cara” said Lexi as she opened the rear doors “and Josh”

Dan saw that Cara was young, and placed Josh at about three. He was a good-looking boy with blue eyes and bright blonde hair. Dan stifled a choked cry; he looked too much like his own boy for him to cope just now.

He mumbled a welcome and excused himself, letting Penny take over and welcome them in. He stripped off his boots and got into the grey tracksuit again, then lay on his cot. Ash watched him closely, making him feel slightly uncomfortable after a while. He held his hand out to the dog who recoiled at first, then sniffed and licked at his hand. He finally lay down with Dan’s hand resting on the back of his head, and slept.

He always envied dogs that ability. Two speeds; flat out and spark out.

He took Ash out again about an hour later, walking him at heel whilst he ked, and shut him away again before dinner. The mood was high throughout the meal, and Penny had invited the new arrivals to say a bit about themselves. Lizzie was a nursing assistant who worked for a care company. She spent her days visiting people at home and helping them, changing dressings and the like. As she said this, Kate said loudly “MINE!” everyone laughed.

Cara was in college having had Josh in her late teens to an absent boyfriend. Dan imagined that some people would have had an opinion on that two weeks ago, but those kind of grievances were void now. Josh was quiet and nervous, understandably.

Penny called for departmental heads to stay, whilst the others had been escorted through to the lounge area. Penny made a short speech about how happy she was with the way the group was holding together and growing.

“We now have twenty-seven members” she said proudly

“Twenty-eight” said Dan with a smile, referring to Ash. His mood was improving now he had got used to the presence of Josh enough to see lots of differences between him and Michael.

“Lizzie has obviously been taken by medical – no arguments there I think?” she said. Kate looked relieved to have some backup.

“Cara has expressed experience in catering. I propose to have her cooking for now, with Eve attached for training. The children should be fine with them. All agreed?” she continued. All did agree and Penny’s obvious look of relief made it clear just how stressed she was at producing meals on top of organising.

“Joe has asked to join the Rangers” she said, looking at Dan. That was no surprise, he seemed a bit of an army nut.

“Pending assessment, yes” said Dan, and reminded them that he had the final say on whether someone gets a gun or not. He saw an eagerness in Joe that appeared not to be bolstered by arrogance and felt happy to be patient with him. The skills could be taught, but the temperament needed to be the solid foundation for teaching.

“Mark has offered his services wherever they may be required, as he has no children to teach sports to” she finished

Jimmy straightened in his seat “I’ll take him” he said hopefully.

“Logistics it is then” she declared.