The Dust: Book Two - Pursuit (25 page)

‘Think you could escape me do you?’ Gold laughed, he kicked Angel in the ribs and then bent down to get closer to you.

Angel spat in his face and tried to move but he was far too strong and she couldn’t budge him.

Gold licked Angel’s spit of his chin and kissed her on the cheek. He whispered into her ear. ‘I’m going to take you back to my lorry and fuck you up the arse.’ He giggled manically.

‘Then I’m going to cut you open from belly button to throat and feed you to my girls in their cage.’ He then moved back to her cheek and licked it.

Angel said nothing, she felt weak. This disgusting excuse for a man actually terrified her, Angel felt deflated and very much defeated.

Gold stood up pulling his prize up with him, all the fight in her body had drained away and she was resigned to her fate.

‘Time for Daddy to teach you a lesson.’ He said.

Angel then heard a blast and she couldn’t see. Liquid had been thrown into her eyes. Her hands had become free and she wiped her eyes, it was blood. Lonny Gold’s blood to be precise. He was still stood in front of her but half his head was missing.

Another blast sounded and Lonny Gold was gone, thrown past her like a rag doll another huge hole appeared this time in his back.

Angel looked straight ahead and there standing holding a gun was Roger Clough. She blinked, it wasn’t possible but she could see him running towards her with a member of the armed forces, she recognised him too from the battle on the mountain only days earlier.

‘Angel, are you okay?’ Roger held both her arms.

‘Roger I don’t understand, where have you come from?’ Angel was still dazed and confused.

‘I made my way out of Bath but got bogged down in a small skirmish but Corporal George here got me out.’

‘That’s when we realised we had mutual acquaintances.’ Lance Corporal Stephen George fired another bullet from his gun as they spoke.

‘We can do this later.’ Roger could see Angel had been shaken up by Lonny Gold’s appearance and started to move her back up the beach.

‘Yanto, we must help Yanto.’ Angel muttered.

‘Okay show us the way.’ Corporal George took the lead shooting anything that was unclothed.

Iris O'Neil threw her pistol at the growling adolescent that was standing before her. The young boy must have been only nine or ten but the demonic look in his bloodshot eyes and the bloodied clenched fists made him a formidable opponent.

‘Get back.’ Hannah shouted as she stood in front of Alice and Lou Pepper to shield them from most of the grizzly bloodshed. ‘Angel is coming back.’

Iris picked up a large stone and threw it the child but it bounced off his shoulder and didn’t stop him advancing.

‘Move back!’ Yanto shouted over to Iris. He was slicing through infected flesh at a rapid rate like a Spartan in the heat of battle. He could see other naked figures starting to move towards the boy and they had noticed the three girls hiding up by the rocks. They could smell the fresh flesh.

Yanto cracked a skull under foot and charged forward knocking several bodies over onto the shingle. Stabbing and cutting as he went the air was filled with spraying blood. As he got close to the youth who was getting nearer to the rocks his boots now soaking wet with blood slipped on the larger more polished stones and he fell losing one off his swords.

Within seconds he was swarmed, most of the attention was now on him and Iris still throwing stones at the boy managed to get back to the three girls.

Yanto could feel teeth sink into his left arm and a finger dug it’s way into his right eye socket and his own blood spurted from the wound. He let out an almighty yell and with one sword he thrust it into the perpetrator and then elbowed the head that was now attached to his arm. Another hand grabbed his left leg and a rock came crashing down on his head.

Yanto was dazed and couldn’t focus. Still like the roaring lion though he cut down another three infected men as they attacked. A bare foot then kicked his head and he could feel the flesh being torn from his thigh. He looked down and he could just make out four or five faces biting and pulling at his legs. Using the handle of his sword he slammed a few of them away but now there was too many. He managed to stand but two girls were hanging from his back trying to rip the skin from his neck. Throwing his sword to the ground and using his bare hands he removed one of the girls punching her to the ground. Using his fist like a hammer he battered the rest from his now bloodied and bare legs and staggered backwards. There he was confronted by a long haired man in his twenties. Naked as the day he was born he was covered from head to toe in tattoos and piercings. In his hand was one of Yanto’s swords and he was sizing up the bruised and bedraggled man standing before him with a girl hanging from his neck.

Yanto knew he was in trouble, his time was up, and his luck had run out. The tattooed man lept forward and plunged the blade into Yanto’s stomach. Yanto fell back but kept his footing; he grabbed a hold of the blade cutting his fingers in the process and then pulled the man close.

Their eyes met and Yanto could see the bloodshot eyes constantly flicking and moving from side to side, like the whole infected body had gone into overdrive, then he head-butted the beast. The tattooed man fell back letting go of the sword his nose splattered across his face. Yanto yanked the blade from his stomach blood seeping from the wound and with a flick of the wrist decapitated the pierced head. Grabbing the hair of the girl who had now sunk her teeth into the back of his neck he pulled her around to the front of him and pushed his sword through her throat. That was when he fell, he was losing too much blood and his body gave up.

‘Get up!’ Angel shouted as she bounded over the larger stones towards Yanto. She didn’t want to believe this giant of a man had been felled.

‘Look out.’ Roger then pulled Angel to the floor. An arrow ripped through the air and missed her head by millimetres. Roger could see a man had got a hold of Angel’s bow and had collected the arrows from the dead carcasses. ‘Take him out.’ He called over to Corporal George.

George looked but couldn’t see the bowman. He raised his gun but another arrow was released and hit him in the shoulder. He cried out and started randomly shooting into the direction from where it came.

‘Get down.’ Roger shouted trying to pull his pal to the floor.

George shook him off wanting to stand and fight but another arrow then caught him under the cheekbone and he was killed instantly.

‘We need to stop him.’ Angel said trying to crawl over to Yanto.

Roger was too shocked to answer but slowly moved over to his dead friend to retrieve his weapon. ‘I’m sorry my friend.’ He whispered. Roger owed Corporal George his life and now he had brought him into a battle that had ended his. He shook his head; this world was becoming crueller by the second.

‘Yanto, you better not die on me.’ Angel got to the big Welshman who was slipping in and out of consciousness.

‘Get to the rocks.’ He whispered his lips dry and cracked.

‘I’m not leaving you here.’ Angel turned to see if Roger was behind him.

Yanto held her hand. ‘My time is up my little Cariad. I have no more fight left in me.’

As she was going to reply Angel’s attention was brought to the screaming from the rocks. What she saw made her leap up and leave Yanto as she sprinted towards Lou Pepper.

Another arrow whistled past Roger but the commando rolled across the sand and when he regained his stance he squeezed the trigger. The naked man flew back into the air and Angel’s bow somersaulted into the Severn. The silent assassin was dead.

Roger too heard the screams coming from the rocks and he could see Angel running in the direction of the melee. He took aim but there were too many bodies, he couldn’t guarantee the safety of his friends. Leaping over the small rocks trying not to skid on the blood he took out two advancing bodies as they stumbled towards the girls.

‘Hit the deck!’ He yelled and Angel pulled down Iris O'Neil whom she had reached first. Three short bursts of gun fire felled another three ‘Infected’.

‘Over there.’ Angel pointed the young boy who was now a few feet from Lou Pepper.

Roger took aim but he could not get a clean shot so sprinted in a little closer.

Lou Pepper screamed as the boy only a year or so older than her growled like a rabid dog and took her by the hair. ‘Angel, help me!’

Before the boy could strike, Hannah wrestled the boy to the ground and they fell onto the stones. The youngster fought like banshee and Hannah was no match for his snapping teeth and gouging fingers. Within a minute the young girls was blind and then was bleeding profusely from the wound in her neck where the boy had bit her.

Iris stood up and screamed. She tried to run to her friend’s aid but Angel held her back.

Roger on the other hand was now behind the boy shouting at Lou Pepper to get away. He slammed the butt of his gun into the boy’s temple and his head caved in. Roger wiped the blood from his face and felt physically sick, not because of the bits of brain he had in his hair but the fact that he just had to kill a small child in cold blood.

Angel and Iris now moved over to Lou Pepper and removed her from the scene.

‘Where’s Alice?’ Iris said panic stricken.

‘I told her stay.’ Lou cried. 'I told her you would be cross if she moved from the rocks.’

Iris grabbed Lou, a little too roughly for Angel’s liking but the concern was for Alice so she overlooked it. ‘Where is Alice child, where?’

The screams came from Naomi Hardcastle who was about two hundred yards past the rocks.

Roger ran across to see what was wrong with the teenager but when he saw the body of little Alice with her stomach strewn all over the pebbles he just pulled her away. He looked over to the girls and shook his head.
That was no sight for anyone to see.

‘Look Angel, who are they?’ Lou hadn’t worked out that the body of her little friend was lying on the blood soaked beach but was more concerned with the figures in the distance that seemed to be watching them.

‘Oh my God fathers, not more trouble.’ Iris could just make out they were all wearing matching white overalls. ‘Why aren’t they helping us?’ She looked down at a motionless Hannah. ‘We need their help.’

‘We need to leave, now.’ Roger was most insistent. ‘We need to get away from them.’

‘Why? Angel asked. ‘They can help Yanto.’ She started to wave at them.

Roger pulled her hands down. ‘We need to move, and fast.’ Roger looked up at the shaved headed figures on the horizon. He had seen them before a couple of days ago and knew they weren’t friendly.

Angel disagreed and stormed off back down to her friend who was lying wounded on the shingle. She was going nowhere without him.

Roger looked at Iris. ‘Who’s left?’

‘Me, you, Angel, Lou Pepper and Naomi.’ She stared down at her feet. No Alice and no Hannah and Yanto who was gravely ill. The whole exodus to Devon was now in tatters, the dream looked over.

‘Look.’ Lou Pepper tugged at Roger’s arm. ‘A boy is standing up.’

Iris and Naomi watched as the lad got to his feet and brushed the sand from his clothes. The blood stained the skin of his face but they both knew who he was. Harry James was still alive.

Chapter Twenty Six

Jake had kicked his way into his parents’ house that had been barricaded in at the front with smashed up furniture. There had been no sign of his father but when he had gone into the back garden he had been confronted with the remains of his poor mother.

Jake had wept over her dismembered body but knew he had to find Amber and quick so the tough decision not to bury what remained of his beloved mother was taken. He left their house in despair and as he wandered the streets of Caldicot staggering from side to side his wet clothes dripped onto the dust laden pavements. Thoughts of his mother and the love he had for her swirled around his head and he felt as though he was going to faint.

He came across the old newsagents he used to visit just across form the cenotaph and decided to look in to see if there was anything left to drink. He felt physically and mentally drained, his head was thumping.

Jake opened the door but all he could find was a half-eaten shop keeper and a rotten vegetables. The smash of glass brought him back onto the main road and then he remembered something. Jake remembered telling Amber about the grounds man’s hut and the hideout he used when he was a kid. Suddenly the thumping in his head stopped and hope ignited his body. He sprinted from the main road across the playing fields towards the ramshackled wooden hut. Jake didn’t need to pull the key from the gap under the hut the door was already ajar. He slowly pushed it open. His heart sank, it was empty. Stepping inside he came across some empty bottles of soft drinks and tied up crisp bags. He picked up one of the plastic packets; it’s exactly how he had taught Amber to tie up a bag to keep it small. She had been there.

Jake stepped back out of the hut and onto the grass. He was angry, he was sad but most of all he was frustrated.
Where was his Barnacle?

He let out a loud roar and sank to his knees. He had let her down and he had let his parents down. This whole journey had been pointless. His whole existence was pointless.

Then a corrugated sheet fell to the floor. It had been propped up with many others next to the old changing rooms only a few yards from the wooden hut. Then Jake could see a figure appear, a bedraggled helpless figure.

The small child started running towards Jake and then as the little girl’s hair blew back he could make out the face.

It was Amber!

Jake ran to her his arms open and when they met he scooped her up into his chest. Both were crying and both squeezed each other until they lost their breath.

‘I love you Barnacle.’ Jake kissed her cheek and wiped his eyes.

Amber was balling her eyes out, she had been through the ringer and her face and clothes told the story. ‘I didn’t think you were…’ She tried to catch her breath. ‘Coming.’

Jake looked around, they were out in the open and it was starting to get dark. ‘I would never let you down my girl, I would never leave you.’ He kissed her again. ‘We need to leave now, it’s not safe here.’