The Fight for Life

by S G Read

  When the fumes had dissipated enough to go in, he took out what he wanted to defrost and took it indoors. With his food defrosting he walked round the garages looking for something to do as a temporary cover but he had no success. He looked up at the sky and slid the generator back where it had been, then restarted it. Better safe than sorry!

  Now he started on the bigger generator! He opened the cellar window, he would eventually drill a hole through the wall for the cable but without electricity and tools it would be hard work. From outside he passed the end of the cable through the window and rolled the rest out in a big arc so that he did not have to cut it. Back in the cellar, by torch light and daylight, he took out the cables which had originally fed power to the consumer unit and stripped back the outside of the armoured cable to expose the three cores inside. These he connected to the consumer unit, one to the live, one to the neutral and one to the earth. Back at the generator he did the same until he was ready to try it. He walked back inside and turned off all the fuses except the lighting fuse, it was a fairly modern fuse box with miniature circuit breakers fitted. If a fuse went all it needed to restore power, was to reset the miniature circuit breaker.

  Back outside he checked the level of the diesel in the tank on the generator, it was half full. He started it without any trouble and walked back indoors. The lights worked! Now he explored properly and in the end he turned on all the other fuses bar the immersion heater and the electric oven. With very little to plug in he could not very well overload the generator. Now he could shop for electrical goods and he needed some furniture. He would also need to find a separate oil tank for the generator and considered ways of doing it. In the end he settled on taking a building supplies lorry with a hoist on it, then he could lift a full tank on board and bring it back. He would now be swapping his large van for a builder’s lorry, a second person to bring the second vehicle home laded with whatever they needed would be a great help. He turned the generator off to save fuel and drove out the gate. Locking it behind him with the new chain and padlock.

  First he drove down the little road his new house was sited on but in the opposite direction to the main road, he was looking for another large house, preferably with oil fired heating. The first big house he came to was a likely looking prospect. He parked, took his gun, electric screw driver and crowbar and walked round the back. He saw a large calor gas container in the garden which meant no oil but still forced the back door. He started to screw the door shut when he was inside when the battery gave up the ghost. Suddenly a large dog hit the rear door! The door opened at the bottom but the screw held at the top where he had started to put it! He could have shot the dog through the glass but did not want to leave the house open to the elements, instead he dragged a heavy drawer unit up to the door to hold it shut while the dog went wild outside. He walked to the stairs, went up to a room above the back door and opened the window. There were three dogs there that he could see and he fired at the one nearest the house. It yelped in pain and limped away. Ray shot it again and it fell dead. The other two dogs which were visible immediately set about eating their fallen comrade. Ray shot them as well. As he did so, the big dog made a break for it and was out of sight before Ray could shoot him.

  Ray returned the ground floor and walked to the front door. After a quick search he found the front door keys, in a convenient key cupboard. He was about to go when it dawned on him that he had just pushed past some curtains! This house was furnished! In fact it probably had all he would need for now, with the exception of an oil tank! He unlocked the door and looked about for the big dog or any more friends of the big dog but if he was there the big dog was keeping out of sight!

  Ray loaded all he could move on his own into the van, including a new looking plasma screen television, a video recorder and a DVD player.

  He also took all the DVDs and videos, including some home recordings. He piled them all into carrier bags for speed and he took two pillow cases from the airing cupboard for extra room. He took two more beds but left the double bed with the two owners entwined together in death, they could stay there until he could bury them! He drove on to the next house and found an oil tank. It had a lot of oil in it and he reminded himself to make sure he brought something which would cope with the weight. He took what he could from the house and locked it up before returning to his new house and unloading. He had two choices, drag it inside and go after the oil tank or take the new acquisitions to the rooms he wanted them in. He now had knives, forks, plates, saucepans and a dishwasher! He could afford to be lazy and wait until the dishwasher was full, or just wash what he had used on any particular day in it! After all there would be no horrendous electricity bill. He brought drawer units from the house. He was going to use one for his clothes when he went clothes shopping, the other drawer unit for anyone else he found alive, if they were worth giving a home to. He had his doubts about the men who had first raided the gun shop and then the pub to get drunk, he might have to kill them one day!’

  As he tipped out the DVDs, his mood changed. Ghost fell onto the floor, it was Miriam’s favourite film. He set up the television, turned on the generator and started the film playing. He did nothing more that day, he sat watching the film with tears flowing freely, as he remembered Miriam crying at one part. It meant that he cried as well!

  He cooked his food after the film had finished then watched a spaghetti western to make him feel a little better before he went to bed.

  Mustapha looked after his girls. He made sure they did not touch the food or drink in the outer cave and poison themselves after his hard work, by tipping it all away. But they did not start to recover. They slowly lost their strength and their beauty. As they grew worse Mustapha panicked, he would be all alone. He chose one girl out of all of them and despite women being only chattels in his eyes, he injected her with antibiotics and used cold compresses to try to keep her cool. He used ice which they had for the drinks to help cool her and even tried more of the serum Sharqe had made. One by one the girls died as well as the Great One but this girl, his last hope lived for the forth day and he started to think he might have beaten the Great One and the plague. On the fifth day she was still alive and no longer had a temperature and Mustapha slept. One the sixth day with his woman eating and sitting up in her bed he took the Great One out into the sunlight, for the vultures to feed on and did the same with all the other bodies, then checked on his plane. It still had enough fuel for a flight and other planes had taken off from here in the past, although it was a well disguised runway. The question was, would it take off with him and his girl on board.

  He loaded all the supplies into the plane, then took the girl to it. He turned the plane round, looked into the sky for divine protection and tried to take off. The plane left the ground but would have hit the mountain at the far end had he not aimed for the gap between two mountains. From there on he gained height and knew they were safe. When he saw the river below him he looked for a landing spot, the main highway through the town on the river made a good runway and he landed on it. He taxied to a large hotel and parked.

  ‘Welcome to your new home Mrs. Qamot.’ He said as he turned the planes engines off. ‘First class all the way: from now on!’

  Chapter 2

  Ray woke in the morning. The generator had stopped during the night so today he decided he had to get the oil tank from the other house, somehow!

  He had breakfast by sunlight then remembered the other reason for choosing this site, as well as the wall right round the large garden, it showed a stream running through the grounds inside the wall. He spent sometime walking round the perimeter of the grounds, inside the wall but saw no sign of a stream! Disappointed he siphoned some oil from the oil tank and refilled the generator, started it and drove to the gates. He removed the padlock and chain, then refitted the bolts which secured the motor to the gate opening arm. Now when he pushed the remote in the cab the gates wobbled and swung open. He drove through, pushed the button and watche
d them close again but he did not drive on. Instead he walked back, after checking for dogs and put the chain and padlock on the gates again. Better safe than sorry! At least he would know if he had any visitors.

  He drove to the main road using the direct route, looking at everything around him as he went and sometimes stopping to listen, with the engine off but it was always quiet, except for the normal noises made be the birds and animals.

  He drove to an industrial estate and slowly moved from unit to unit until he saw the open backed lorry he wanted. It was behind locked gates and the gates were meant to keep out intruders. He climbed onto the top of the van and used a strap to lower himself down keeping clear of the razor wire on top of the gates. Once inside he took his big hammer from his tool belt and hammered the padlock into submission. He opened the gates and drove inside, then closed the gates again behind him. He forced the back door to the store open carefully. He found a chain and padlock so that he could relock the gates. He also took another electrical screw driver as his batteries needed charging now. He found one with enough power to seal the door back up and after finding the keys to the lorry, he took a bagful of fittings and two reels of

  Copper pipe to run an oil line to his new generator. With it all loaded on the back of the lorry, he drove to the gates. He could see and hear nothing so he opened the gates, drove out and padlocked the gates behind him. Now he drove to the house with the oil tank behind it. It was the first time he had driven anything this big and he hit several cars on the way out of the estate but to be fair some were not parked well. By the time he reached the house he had the hang of driving the lorry and reversed over the garden to where the oil tank was waiting for him. He looked about for the big dog but saw no sign of it, although he could see where the dead dogs had been and they were gone!

  He hammered the pipe which fed the oil to the house flat and turned off the tap which fed it before cutting the pipe. Now came the big test, the tank had a lot of oil in it, so would the crane lift it onto the flat bed of the lorry. He put straps round the tank to lift it and raised the lift hook upwards. The motor groaned but the oil tank lifted but in lifting, it swung towards him and he had to dodge out of the way as it hit the lorry. Nothing happened, it just hung there so he raised it high enough to get it on to the lorry and slowly swung it round until it was where he wanted it. He lowered it with a smile of satisfaction and watched it settle. He saw the concrete lintels the oil tank had sat upon and put them onto the back of the lorry so that he could reuse them at his house. When they were all on board he drove to the front of the house. He stopped and thought about lowering the heavier things out of a window with the crane but the day was getting on. He wanted to get the oil tank rigged up and working today, that way the generator would work for a month without him having to worry about it. As he was going to drive away he thought about the garage. He stopped, climbed down and came face to face with the big dog. He had his pistol with him but the dog did not bark or attack, it just stood there.

  ‘Well?’ Ray asked. ‘Do we dance or what?’

  The dog wagged its long tail. Ray moved forwards and stroked it. It was obviously well fed for now and Ray had enough food to keep it fed. His need for company made up his mind for him, a big dog he could use. He opened the front door and took the keys to the garage door, where he went though them one by one until he found the right one. Inside the garage was a sports car, not much use for anything except pleasure but next to it was a hatchback. He thought about it for a few seconds, then decided to drag that behind the lorry to use instead of the big lorry when he went to get his van. He found the keys to both cars and used a strap to hoist the one he wanted into the air, leaving the back wheels on the ground. He opened the door to the lorry and stood back.

  ‘Are you coming?’ He asked the big dog and it bounded into the passenger seat.

  He climbed in and drove back to the house where he found enough scraps to keep the big dog entertained while he let the car down and parked it. As soon as he drove the big lorry round to where he wanted the oil tank, the dog followed. He parked by the wall where he wanted the oil tank to stand but realised his error. It needed a base to raise it up to make the oil flow. He scratched his head but realised that it would work just as well from the back of the lorry and realised what a good move it was to bring the car back with him!

  He ran the pipe across the lawn with the dog watching, connected it to the oil tank which still stood on the back of the lorry, then left it ready to connect to the generator as soon as the generator ran out of diesel again.

  With time left in the day he decided to go looking for other company, he felt he could offer a home to more than a dog now but what to do with the dog. Should he leave it as a guard dog or take it as extra protection. He decided to leave it for now but with a good feed to keep it happy. Now he felt there was no need for the chain and padlock on the gate! He fed the dog and drove to the gate. The dog looked up as he drove away but soon went back to eating.

  Ray drove round the back roads to where there were houses and shops. One food shop he passed had its door ajar and he fancied he saw someone duck down inside. He drove on and turned off so that he was out of sight and out of earshot of the shop, then parked.

  His plan was to walk back to the shop and watch to see where whoever it was went. The fact that they ducked down meant that they did not care to be seen by him but it might have been through a bad experience, or purely shyness. He closed the car door as quietly as possible and started walking back to where the shop was, keeping an eye out for stray dogs but a scream stopped him in his tracks. It was a girl screaming and she sounded fairly young. He immediately turned and started in the direction of the scream but as he grew closer he heard voices, men’s voices! He slowed in his approach and found the start of a ditch near to where the girl was screaming. She stopped screaming abruptly. He saw four top of the range cars parked on the road by the ditch. He chose to walk up the ditch despite the water. He passed a wall and saw the girl who had been screaming tied with her back to the bonnet of a car. A rope had been passed through the two open windows and tied to her hands so that she could not resist. He legs were tied to either wheel to hold them apart, she had no dress on but she still had her pants on. He listened and counted.

  ‘Tear them off.’ A man who was obviously the leader hissed.

  ‘I aint touching them things, look at the state of them! I could catch something nasty!’ The man next to him cried.

  ‘I could try to find something to cut them with up in the house.’ Another man offered. ‘Scissors or something the like.’

  Ray counted six people about to take their turn to rape a girl who was fifteen or sixteen. Six men he mused, I might kill three but then the others would kill me, I need to lessen the odds.

  ‘Do that then but don`t hang about, I`m hornier than a buck in rutting season!’ The leader answered.

  Ray smiled and moved along the ditch past the shed the car was parked end on to. Someone had carefully reversed it up there and left it never to return. Beyond the area they were standing on, he could see a church in all its glory. The man who had offered to get some scissors walked up the slope toward the house he up there. Ray took aim with his crossbow and waited until he was near the ditch before he fired. He aimed at the chest but the power of the bow took him by surprise and the bolt flew high. It hit the man in the neck. There was no noise but he flailed about, then fell into the ditch. He landed head first and struggled for a few seconds before he went limp.

  ‘One down.’ Ray whispered.

  He walked back down the ditch to where the others waited.

  ‘We`ve got a hunting knife in the car haven`t we?’ Another man asked. It was a rhetorical question and he walked off toward the cars.

  Ray slipped back to the road and stood there waiting. The man walked round the wall and saw him. As he opened his mouth to speak Ray hit him with a bolt, this time in the chest where he aimed. The open mouth made no noise and the man fell to the
floor.

  ‘Two down.’ Ray whispered but to his counting that left him dead and one still alive to carry on with the girl.

  ‘Charlie, go and see what is keeping Lester.’ The leader fumed.

  ‘I`ll help Jim.’ Another man offered.

  Ray thought quickly, the man in the ditch would not be seen until whoever went was coming back but the man with the car was in plain sight. He slipped back to the road in time to meet the man coming round the corner. It was a hasty shot and hit the man in the throat. Ray watched the man struggle with the bolt, as he watched he loaded again and fired when the man failed to die. This time he hit the man in the chest and he collapsed on top of the first man. Ray slipped into the ditch and quietly passed the remaining two to intercept the man who had gone up to the house. He was walking back swinging a pair of scissors round his finger but stopped when he saw the man in the ditch. His head was now under the water and the bolt could not be seen.

  The man with the scissors stopped to look down at the man in the ditch and Ray took his time to aim carefully. He hit him in the chest with a bolt. The scissors fell and then he did, on top of the first man.

  Ray slipped back down the ditch to where the last two men were, confident that he could kill both the remaining men and survive.

  ‘Where the hell are they?’ The leader shouted. ‘I am not waiting any longer, I`ll do it in my pants in a minute, she`s so hot!’ He tore at her pants until they ripped and he dropped them on the floor. He wiped his hands on the other mans coat, then dropped his trousers. He pulled out an enormous penis, fully erect and ready for business.

  ‘Turn your back you moron.’ He called to the second man as the girl struggled to stop him and to spit out the gag from her mouth. ‘I aint going to watch you do it, am I?’