The Dust: Book Two - Pursuit (4 page)

‘Okay Grandma, don’t be long I’m hungry.’ Amber whispered.

Tears welled in her eyes as she looked down at the bundle of rags that he granddaughter lay under, she really didn’t want to leave her but she had no choice. Swallowing hard to keep her emotions in check she turned and pulled herself up and out of the loft window.

Joyce was quite impressed in how nimble she was, not bad for a sixty two year old. Crouched on the roof tiles and gripping the outside of the hatch she looked around, it was a great view and she could see for miles. In the distance she could see the second Severn crossing but it was the sound of smashing glass that caught her attention. This had become a regular and discomforting noise, the streets had been hauntingly quiet but every now and again glass would smash. Looters? Robbers? Joyce’s mind had been in overdrive.

She needed to slide in a controlled manner to the guttering and then using the drainpipe she could climb down onto the conservatory roof. It was made with toughened glass so she knew it would take her weight not that she weighed that much as it was. Using her hands Joyce shimmied down to the white plastic guttering with ease, again she was impressed how agile she was. Perched on the edge of the roof she was about to climb down onto the cast iron drain pipe when something caught her eye, she could have sworn she had seen a man by her garden fence, she looked again but there was nothing.
Stupid cats.

Joyce threw her legs around the pipe and began to move slowly down towards the glass roof.
Christ
, she thought to herself, it was a long time since she had climbed up or down a drain pipe. She remembered Jimmy Knight and the summer evening where they had gone back to his house to ‘kiss and cuddle’, that seemed like two lifetimes ago. Her heart still fluttered when she recalled the front door of his terrace house slamming shut and his mother calling up the stairs. Joyce even began to blush when she remembered she had to quickly pull her bra back down and hastily button her blouse back up. She even smiled when she recollected Jimmy’s panic stricken face as his mother started to climb the stairs. That had been the last time she had shinnied down a drain pipe, after that little episode Joyce had decided to concentrate on her exams instead. They were only sixteen and school sweethearts but those were the days when innocence and purity were at the forefront of every respectable working class family when really the reality was quite different.

Joyce held her breath as one foot touched the hard glass, it squeaked as she put her weight on it but still held onto the drain pipe as though her life depended on it. Her next foot felt around precariously before resting and Joyce loosened her grip slightly, the glass creaked but seemed to hold. Looking around she worked out that she needed to lower herself as slowly and as carefully as she possibly could and then shuffle to the edge. There Joyce could turn around and ease her way over the gutter and onto the wall that lay between the patio and the garden.

She let one hand go of the drain pipe and then another and using the brick wall as a support she inched her way down until her bottom touched the glass, it was cold. Again something caught her eye by the garden fence, she thought it moved. Joyce stayed breathlessly still, she could feel her heart pumping through her chest.
Was it cats?
It was too late to go back up now anyway and she needed to get help or at the very least something for them both to drink. Using the palms of hands as suckers she gently slid herself down the pane of glass towards the plastic guttering, she was nearly there, she started to feel a bit better.

Joyce was just about to turn around to move over the edge when the wooden garden gate which led onto the outside pavement running around the cul-de-sac burst off its hinges and crashed to the ground. She panicked, she instinctively knew this was bad and immediately tried to clamber up the glass. The dew was still on the pane as the sun had yet to burn it off and Joyce slipped and could feel herself fall backwards. She tried to stand to get some more leverage but this had disastrous consequences and Joyce lost all grip tumbling back and flipping over the guttering and onto the slate patio below.

She opened her eyes and for a split second Joyce thought everything was okay. The pain then hit her sensory nerve fibres and she cried out, the sweat furred her brow and nausea churned in her stomach. Joyce looked down at her feet and then instantly wished she had kept her eyes away. Her left foot was pointing downwards and in a direction that it had never pointed before, it was badly broken. Her right foot was in a worse state though, her ankle had snapped and a piece of bone had pierced through her skin and was sticking out. Joyce was then sick and began to pass out. It wasn’t until she heard the murmuring noise that she recalled the gate being smashed off its hinges, then her ankles became the least of her problems.

Through the sunlight she could make out a figure stumbling towards her, it was naked, worse still it was her neighbour Derek Crayford.

‘Derek!’ She cried. ‘Is that you?’ Joyce winced with the pain.

The naked figure didn’t answer but sniffed the air and kept walking towards his prey.

‘Derek, what’s happened?’ Joyce now tried to lift herself up but the pain was too much and the cold sweats overcame her and she could feel herself losing consciousness.

Suddenly another figure appeared behind the naked Derek Crayford. Joyce shielded her eyes from the sun and could make out it was another neighbour, Elaine Smith.

‘Elaine help me please, I need a doctor.’

Out of the sunlight the portly woman in her early fifties moved into the shade and Joyce could see she too was naked. She could also see a madness in her eyes and that blood was smeared all over her breasts and stomach.

‘What’s happening?’ Joyce yelled. ‘Please help me!’ Summoning up her inner strength she managed to drag herself across the patio trying to get herself to the backdoor, she was only a few feet away when she felt a cold hand on her leg.

‘No!’ She screamed. ‘Get off.’ Joyce kicked out suddenly forgetting the pain in her ankle.

Then another hand, a smaller one touched her shoulder.

This time Joyce was whimpering. ‘Please leave me alone.’

She could then feel a set of teeth bite into the back of neck and then another set sink into her thigh. Joyce closed her eyes and thought of Amber, ‘Please be safe.’ She whispered, then she could feel a hand being forced through the back of her neck and into her throat, thankfully that was the last thing Joyce Meadows felt.

Chapter Four

‘Where is that child?’ Roger grumbled as he sat in driver’s seat of the truck ready to depart from Wisteria Hall.

‘Lou, we are ready to leave!’ Jake shouted from the patio outside the orangery.

‘Honey, we need to get a wriggle on.’ Angel called out as she walked past the big barn where the diesel had been stored.

‘They are looking for you.’ Giggled Alice.

‘Shhh.’ Lou Pepper placed a finger on her pursed lips. ‘They will find us if you aren’t quiet.’ She then sniggered.

‘Don’t you want to go with them?’ Alice asked.

‘Yes, Angel is like my new mummy now even though I miss my old one. Everything is different now, no school, no Bonzo the dog but worst of all no sweets.’ She frowned.

‘I know.’ Alice agreed. ‘My Daddy went to live with the angels a few years ago, I can’t really remember much about it but my mummy used to cry a lot. She doesn’t cry so much anymore but she does get cross very easily.’

‘My Daddy is still alive but I can’t find him. Angel is helping me though.’

‘How could you lose your Daddy?’ Alice squished her eyebrows together.

‘I didn’t lose him he just doesn’t live with us anymore. I went to find him but some horrible people picked me up in this stinky old truck but it was okay because then I met Angel.’

‘She is pretty, like an angel.’ Alice giggled again.

‘I think all the boys fancy her.’ Lou laughed but put her hand in front of her mouth to try and soften it.

‘We live here mostly with Uncle Charles. He’s okay but he can be a bit grumpy.’

‘Hello I’m Uncle Charles.’ Lou pretended to put on a deep man’s voice and used Rufus the teddy bear as a puppet.

Alice laughed out aloud. ‘That’s so funny.’

Lou placed Rufus beside her and rolled onto her back to look up at the old slated roof. ‘I wish I could stay here with you.’

‘Please do.’ Alice pleaded. ‘It gets so boring on my own. My cousin Henry just thinks I’m a stupid kid, I wish he was a girl.’

Both girls burst out laughing.

‘Hello I’m Henry and I’m a girl.’ It was Alice who used her teddy bear this time putting on a high pitch voice.

Again both girls giggled and Lou kicked her legs against the hay, she hadn’t had such a funny time since that horrible dust had landed and ruined everything.

‘There you are.’ Angel’s head popped up out of nowhere as she had heard the two little girls laughing and climbed the ladder that was in the big barn that led to the hay loft.

The girls both screamed with fright and then simultaneously started laughing once more.

‘Come on honey we have to leave, we have all been looking for you.’ Angel held out her hand for Lou to take.

‘Can Alice come with us?’

‘No honey she has to stay here with her Mummy.’

Lou looked at Alice and tears welled in her eyes. ‘I have to go now.’

‘It’s okay, you can come back soon though?’

‘Yes we can, can’t we Angel?’

‘Of course honey, we will be back very soon.’

Then all three girls descended the ladder and made their way back to the truck.

***

‘It’s secure now.’ Iris tied the bootlace with the gold ring dangling on the end of it around Hannah’s neck.

‘Thank you.’ She replied quietly.

‘What’s that?’ It was Archie who appeared in front of the two women holding his air rifle.

‘None of your business.’ The teenager sneered clutching her dad’s wedding ring and went to walk away from the young lad.

‘Don’t walk away from me I was fucking talking to you.’ He went to grab Hannah’s arm.

Iris pushed the boy back and he stumbled. ‘Leave her alone.’

Archie regained his stance and then lashed out with the butt of his gun cracking Iris across the cheek bone. The woman fell to the ground.

‘Don’t you ever touch me again you fucking Irish slag.’ He spat embarrassed by how he had been shown up in front of Hannah.

Hannah then ran back towards the boy and tried slap his face. ‘Stop it, stop it!’ She then crouched down to help Iris.

‘Next time I will fucking kill you.’ This time he actually spat in their direction.

‘Hey, hey, hey what the hell is going on over here?’ Lonny Gold jogged over from the main group to see what the fracas was about.

‘That Irish cunt tried to assault me.’ Archie gritted his teeth and clenched his left fist anger seeping from every pore.

‘What?’ Lonny looked over at Iris who with the help of Hannah was getting up off the floor.

‘Next time I'll 'ave her.’

‘Go back to the truck.’ Lonny ordered Archie.

‘Boss she tried to hit me.’

‘Get back to the fucking truck!’ Lonny bellowed.

Archie jumped with fright and then skulked back.

‘I am so sorry for my acquaintance’s behaviour.’ He held out his huge hand to help Iris. She didn’t take it.

‘He’s unhinged.’ Hannah snapped.

Lonny smiled. ‘Yes he is a little highly strung.’

Iris touched her cheek to see if there was any blood, there was none.

‘Please girls can we get back to the truck? I’m a tad uneasy in this wooded area, lots of trees for naked beasts to hide behind.’ Lonny went to put his hand on Iris’s shoulder as they walked by but she shrugged to warn him off.

The women all clambered back to the relative safety of the old army truck and Lonny and Harry James joined Archie in the cab.

Lonny turned the key and big diesel engine roared into life. He then leaned over to Archie. ‘Haven’t I taught you anything boy? Sometimes you are about as useful as a cock flavoured lollypop.’

Harry laughed but he stopped as soon as Lonny stared at him.

‘You can knock the women around as much as you want but not on the face. How the fuck am I going to get punters interested if they have bruised all over their pretty little faces? Next time just give them a dig in the ribs, comprendez?’

Archie nodded slowly knowing he had gone down a rung or two in Lonny’s estimations.

Harry on the other hand sat back in his seat as the truck started to rumble down the lane. He had seen his mother knocked about by an endless string of nasty ass boyfriends and he didn’t like it.
Men who hit women were bullies, simple as.

For now he would say nothing, it wasn’t the right time. He just continued to look out of the window, they went past an old road sign sat back in the hedge, 3 miles to Tickhill.

Chapter Five

‘Grandad, what are you doing?’ Amber peered down from the loft hatch and onto the landing.

There crouched down on the blood sodden carpet was Cyril Meadows, Elaine Smith and Derek Crayford all naked and all huddled around something that Amber couldn’t see.

‘grandad, who are your new friends?’ Again her questions went ignored. Frustrated and thirsty she withdrew back into the loft and looked out of the window. The sun was now slipping down towards Newport and the huge Celtic Manor hotel had become a vast silhouette on the side of the hill.

Where was Grandma?
Amber skulked back to the hatch but again her questions went unanswered, she needed a drink and she was so very hungry.

What would Daddy do?
Amber missed her Daddy, she hadn’t seen him for weeks and weeks and weeks. She wanted a big hug off him, he would fix this, he fixed everything. Her throat was dry and her lips were starting to chap. Amber looked around the loft. There was nothing to drink and nothing to eat.

Screams then came from down below and she recognised one of the voices as her grandad’s

‘What’s wrong grandad?’ Amber leaned over the hatch.