by Logan Jacobs
“Well, maybe one day,” Ewan finally said. “So, you said you were heading toward Scarborough?”
“Yeah,” Becka agreed. “My mum’s still there. She was okay the last time I talked to her, but she lives alone and I’m really worried. The dinosaurs are spreading out from the major cities now, and there’s no one there to watch out for her.”
“And you two?” Ewan asked as he tipped his cup toward me and Hae-won. “Why are you heading north?”
“Becka is our friend,” Hae-won replied.
“We said we’d help her get there,” I added.
“Hmmm,” was all Ewan had to say.
Whatever suspicions Ewan might have had, he didn’t share them with us. We finished the tea and scones, and the Scotsman was kind enough to let us use his bathroom, but it was clear that he didn’t want us to stay much longer. He did accept a bottle of Glenfiddich from Becka, then set off on a brisk pace along a garden path that would lead us on a loop around the main house.
I could see three people on what looked like a terrace though we were too far away to see much detail. Ewan ignored my questions and instead kept us moving at a brisk pace. We passed a children’s maze and a play set, then crossed a small creek using a Japanese style footbridge. The path curved around a folly of a Greek temple, then crossed into a more carefully trimmed version of the woods we’d been in before. The track was wider and smoother through here, and I spotted the tracks for what looked like an ATV.
“Just follow this road until you reach the roundabout,” Ewan said when we arrived at a wide metal gate like my grandfather had on his farm.
Ewan pointed toward the left, where shade trees lined the road and wildflowers grew along the curb. It was just wide enough for one car, but at least it was smooth and looked well-maintained.
“Once you reach the roundabout, follow the signs for Sawtry,” Ewan added. “You’ll be able to get back on the highway there.”
“Have you heard any news?” I asked while Ewan opened the gate.
“Like, are the roads clear?” Becka asked.
“Or what type of dinosaurs people have seen nearby?” Hae-won added.
Ewan looked us over before he turned to study the road for a moment.
“Nought heard what might be prowling the roads,” the Scot finally said. “We’ve seen plenty of those lizards that were chasing you, and a couple of larger ones. As for the roads, I hear the A-1 is the only way north.”
“We heard the same,” I said. “And the M-6 did look bad.”
“Then there doesn’t seem to be much I can tell you,” Ewan noted. “Though…”
He stopped and studied the road again, then looked at the bottle of Glenfiddich in his hands. He seemed to reach some sort of decision, and he nodded to himself before he looked at us again.
“I’d be careful around Peterborough,” the Scot said. “Use the side roads and go around if you can. The army’s taken over the power plant there to keep it running, which is good, but I’ve heard that they’ve confiscated all the guns and ammunition in the area, as well as most of the vehicles. About the only thing they haven’t laid claim to is the fishmonger’s old horse cart.”
I looked at Becka, and she scowled as I guessed she tried to remember the area around Peterborough.
“There’s quite a lot of parkways around Peterborough,” the blonde noted. “But just past Stilton, there’s a road that will take us east around the city, toward Newark.”
“Aye, the London Road” the Scot agreed, “but that puts you close to the power plant as well. There’s a smaller road, Broadway, that runs through Yaxley. I’d take that until I got to the road to Whittlesey. At Whittlesey, you can either stay on the road, or head north. Either way, you’ll find your way back to the highway.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” I said after Becka nodded.
“Good luck to you, then,” Ewan said as we pushed the bikes through the gate and onto the road. “I’ll say a prayer for you in the chapel.”
Ewan closed the gate with a clang, then watched us all the way down the road and around the first curve. I’m sure he stayed there until the sound of our motorbikes faded, and probably well after that, but I wasn’t offended. I was just happy to know that there were more people still alive out there somewhere and that they were still willing to help out travelers in need.
The small road the Scotsman had directed us toward proved to be one of the quickest stretches of our trip by far. The narrow lane led us past overgrown pastures and a tumbledown farmhouse, though I wasn’t sure if a dino had destroyed the building or time. Near a stone wall, we spotted a cloud of smoke and the breeze carried the scent of something burning, but we never got any closer to the source.
We found the roundabout in an unnamed village that was little more than a handful of brick homes, a small church, and a large cemetery. The only thing that looked modern were the signs for the roundabout, and we followed the arrow for Sawtry as Ewan had directed. I thought I saw a curtain twitch in one of the windows as we drove through, but no one stepped out of any of the homes to investigate our arrival.
“It doesn’t look like there have been any dinosaurs around here,” Becka noted over the throbbing engines as we stopped for a moment to sort out the signs.
“Maybe they’ve been lucky,” I replied. “Or maybe they’ve found a way to get rid of the bodies, like we did.”
“It doesn’t seem like a very friendly place,” Hae-won noted.
“A good reason to keep going,” I suggested.
We took off for Sawtry, though when I looked over my shoulder, I saw a man with a shotgun step from one of the doors. I felt a shiver along my spine, and I turned my attention back to the road. It was soon clear that we were running parallel to the A-1, and occasionally we were close enough that we could glimpse the main highway through a break in the trees. It was hard to see what condition the A-1 was in along this stretch, but there were still plenty of abandoned vehicles. I was almost tempted to stay on the road we were on, since we had yet to encounter anything more tricky than a large pothole.
Before I could make the suggestion, we arrived at the outskirts of Sawtry and Hae-won started to follow the signs for the A-1. We zipped past a whole block of churches and a Greggs fast food joint, which still had cars in the parking lot, and then a row of one-story businesses that screamed 1970s architecture. An alarm started to go off as we drove past a bank, but once again, no one bothered to step outside to investigate.
So we barreled on until we found the ramp for the A-1. We pulled onto the highway, and I was happy to see that this section wasn’t nearly as packed as the road out of Cambridge. We found a clear path along the emergency lane, and just for fun, Becka and I even switched on our blue police lights.
We were relaxed and enjoying ourselves until we neared Stilton. Becka signalled us to move over, and just a few short miles past the town, Becka pointed to a sign for Norman Cross and Yaxley. We turned onto the London Road, a wide street that looked like any interstate interchange in America, with cheap chain motels, fast food joints, and gas stations.
The signs of sudden destruction were more obvious here. One of the gas stations had burned to the ground, and every building had broken windows, cars were parked wherever their owners had abandoned them, and claw marks could be seen on just about every surface. Ravens were lined up along the rooftops, and the stench of decaying flesh was unmistakable. I spotted a pile of bodies inside the smashed door to a Nando’s and decided I didn’t want to look too closely at what was left at the rest of the businesses.
Our happy-go-lucky attitude faded and both Becka and I turned off our police lights. We squeezed around a three-car collision where the headless body of one of the drivers still sat behind the wheel, hands locked on the steering wheel. Past the chains, we found a stretch of new homes and a small hospital that looked like it had been blown up. The whole area smelled like smoke and burnt rubber, and I noticed that both girls kept putting a hand over their noses and m
ouths.
The outer rim of Yaxley itself was only slightly better. The London Road skirted around the western edge of the town, but we could see more smoke clouds ahead and a roar from a nearby group of apartment buildings resounded across the area.
“Do we still want to go through the town?” Becka asked.
“It looks safer,” Hae-won replied.
“Let’s see what Broadway looks like,” I suggested. “If it seems okay, we’ll stay with that.”
Broadway looked like it had been paved within the last few months, and none of the buildings near the turnoff looked damaged. I looked toward the rising smoke along the London Road, then pulled onto Broadway. There were a few cars scattered around the road, but otherwise, it looked undamaged. I hoped we could pass through Yaxley quickly, but Hae-won started frantically pointing to her right. I looked over and saw another Tim racing toward us from a sidestreet at a breakneck speed.
“Faster!” I yelled as I revved the engine and hunkered low over the handlebars.
Hae-won responded instantly, and she soon passed me on the Bonneville, but Becka still wasn’t comfortable at a really high rate of speed. I looked back and saw the armored carrier turn onto Broadway and aim straight for Becka. The Brit looked over her shoulder, then tried to urge more speed from the bike. I was about to stop and raise my rifle when I heard Hae-won’s own brakes squeal.
I looked forward and saw that another armored carrier had appeared from the parking lot for a Weight Watchers, while a third one was racing toward us from the heart of Yaxley. We were hemmed in with no easy way to get around the vehicles and no obvious exit even if we could.
“What do we do?” Hae-won asked as I skidded to a halt next to her.
I looked around and saw that we were near a strip mall. I pointed toward a liquor store with a smashed storefront.
“You two get inside,” I replied. “I’ll hold them off until we figure out what they want.”
Becka barely had time to stop before Hae-won yanked her off the bike and started to run toward the store. I brought my own rifle around and swept it over the three armored carriers as they came to a halt just inches from me. I was hemmed in, but I saw that the girls at least had made it safely inside. I took a deep breath to try and slow my heart, which was pounding faster than I had ever felt, and I waited for the first human to appear from the truck.
Chapter 4
Even though the carriers bore military markings, I was certain I’d see a bunch of locals hop from the trucks. Locals, at least, I could handle, and I felt confident that I could take down enough of their numbers that they would back off. Instead, the doors on the backs of the carriers opened, and men in the modern green and brown camo military uniforms poured out, their own rifles raised and pointed at me.
Ahhh… fuck.
“Hands up in the air!” one of the men bellowed.
Shit. Not locals, but actual soldiers who knew how to handle the weapons they had pointed at me. I stepped back unconsciously, as I swept the rifle over the men who stood arrayed against me. To say I was outnumbered was an understatement, and I knew there was a very real chance I was about to die of multiple gunshot wounds in the middle of a parking lot in central England. My right hand shook as it hovered over the trigger, but I tightened my grip and forced myself to look the soldiers square in the eyes.
“Don’t be a bloody fool,” one of the soldiers snapped. “We’ll drop you before you can fire a single shot.”
He was only a few years older than me, with dark black hair, brown eyes, and a square head with a cleft chin. If I read the insignia correctly, he was a lieutenant in the army, and at the moment, he looked very angry.
“Turn over the equipment you stole, and we won’t shoot you for treason,” the lieutenant added.
“It’s not stolen,” I replied as calmly as I could.
“Oh, you’re a police officer, then?” the lieutenant asked. “And those two little friends of yours? Officers as well?”
“Leave them alone,” I growled.
“Put down the rifle,” the lieutenant repeated. “And tell your friends to come out here.”
I looked over the soldiers again, and then spotted something on the roof of the liquor store. Hae-won waved and then raised her rifle, and Becka soon joined her.
“Sir,” one of the soldiers snapped in a warning. “On the roof.”
“What do they imagine they’ll accomplish?” the lieutenant demanded. “Their friend here will be dead before they can so much as open fire.”
“But then they’ll open fire on you,” I replied. “And how many of your men do you think they’ll be able to kill from up there? They’re pretty good shots, and they have plenty of ammo. You might be able to drive them out of there, but only after you’ve lost most of your men. Do you really want to do that?”
The soldiers didn’t appear very worried about the scenario I’d just described, but I saw the lieutenant’s eye twitch as he stared at the girls.
“This is ridiculous,” the lieutenant muttered. “I have you dead to rights on stolen property. Those weapons they have are clearly Army issue. I can arrest you lot and put you in a military prison for that.”
“We found them,” I replied. “At a position that had been overrun. There was no one there, just a few bodies. We didn’t touch those. We found the rifles in the back of their armored carrier.”
“Doesn’t matter,” the lieutenant insisted. “Still army property.”
“Sir,” one of the soldiers said as he held up the ammo bag that had been on the back of my bike.
“As is that,” the lieutenant huffed.
“So we were just supposed to let the dinosaurs eat us?” I asked angrily. “Leave everything in the middle of the street and let ourselves become crunchy dino food?”
“We’re here to protect you,” the lieutenant replied.
“Yeah, well, you’re doing a crappy job of it,” I said. “Do you know how many dinos we’ve killed? A lot more than you, I’d bet. And if you think we’re going to be intimidated by a bunch of guys in uniform after that, you’re sadly mistaken.”
Everything seemed to freeze for a moment, even the breeze that had been blowing a plastic bag across the parking lot. I felt my heart drop to the bottom of my chest as I took in the hardened stares of the soldiers and the anger that sparked in the lieutenant’s eyes. I could just see the girls, on top of the liquor store, their guns still pointed at our circle.
“Sir,” a soldier called out.
A woman with cropped hair and brilliant green eyes peered around the edge of one of the transports.
“HQ is insisting on talking to you,” the woman announced.
“Now?” the lieutenant asked in disbelief.
“I told him we were in a standoff,” the woman admitted with a glance in my direction.
“You--” the lieutenant stammered as he turned to glare at the woman.
“He asked,” was all she said.
“Bugger all,” the lieutenant said as he walked stiffly toward the back of one of the armored carriers.
There was another long moment, though at least the world seemed to be moving again. The breeze brought the smell of something burning nearby, and I heard Hae-won yell something in Korean. Two of the soldiers looked toward the girls, and though I couldn’t tell exactly what they were doing, I saw the soldiers smirk for a moment before they returned their gaze to me. I could almost hear my heart beating again, which I took as I sign that I wasn’t about to collapse from a heart attack.
“We’re heading back,” the lieutenant announced when he returned. “You three are coming with us.”
“Like hell,” I replied angrily.
“I’ve been told you can keep whatever you have,” the lieutenant said. “But you will follow us back to basecamp. Our CO wants to talk to you.”
“And if we don’t want to talk to him?” I asked.
“We have orders to shoot the three of you,” the lieutenant replied with a degree of satisfacti
on.
“Which is where we were before,” I pointed out. “So why should I talk to your CO?”
“He wants to offer you a deal,” the lieutenant replied in a grudging tone.
“What kind of a deal?” I asked.
“I couldn’t say,” the lieutenant replied. “All I know is you get to hang onto your looted goods, including the bikes, if you follow us back to the camp and meet with the CO. But first, turn over the weapons.”
It didn’t sound like much of an offer, but it beat staring down the barrel of so many rifles. It also gave us a better chance of walking away from this, I realized, even if it meant we had to break out of some military camp later on. As it was, I was probably going to be shot where I stood, and then who knew what would happen to the girls.
“Alright,” I agreed. “You and your soldiers get back in your vehicles. I’ll tell the girls to come down, then, and we’ll follow you back to this camp. And we’re keeping the guns.”
“You will not be allowed on the base with weapons,” the lieutenant retorted. “So turn them over. Now.”
“No,” I said with more confidence than I felt. “We’re keeping the rifles. We haven’t shot anyone yet, and I don’t want to start with you and your men, but I will if you try to take our guns.”
“You’ll be safe on the trip to the base, if that’s what you’re worried about,” the lieutenant replied.
“I’d rather not take my chances,” I said. “And we’ll need them once we leave your camp. If we turn them over now, I suspect we’ll never see them again.”
The lieutenant considered his options and cast a leery gaze on the girls. He finally nodded and signalled his men to retreat. The soldiers slowly climbed back into the carriers, though they kept their rifles on us the entire time.
“Are they leaving?” Hae-won yelled from the rooftop.
“They are,” I called back. “And we’re going with them.”
“What?” Becka demanded.