The Fight for Life

by S G Read

  The second man turned his back. Ray smiled. –This is going to be easy- He thought.

  As he took aim the man moved and he had to aim again, in the end when he fired the bolt hit the man on the head, glanced off and flew away into the distance toward the church. Ray drew his pistol ready to fire but the man sagged onto the girl, then slid down to his knees, his face on her private parts.

  Ray reloaded his crossbow and shot the other man in the back without any compunction. He slipped back to the road to make sure the two men were still laying there, then checked on the other two before climbing up the bank, his pistol ready. The man with the bolt in his back was still breathing and Ray shot him in the head. He pulled the unconscious leader off the girl and cut her hands free. When he pulled the dirty cloth they had used as a gag out of her mouth, she spluttered and spat several times.

  ‘What now?’ She asked. Noting that her feet were still tied. ‘Your turn is it?’

  Ray smiled. ‘Ever fired one of these?’ He showed her his pistol.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Well you learn today. This makes it ready to fire.’ He cocked it. ‘And this makes it go bang.’ He fired into the dead man.

  He gave her the pistol.

  ‘What am I shooting?’

  ‘Him.’ He pointed to the unconscious leader.

  ‘My pleasure.’ She held the pistol with both hands and aimed. The gun roared and the bullet missed him.

  ‘Try again.’ Ray said quietly. ‘Take your time and aim and make sure you hold the pistol tight.’

  As she aimed the second time the man opened his eyes, he saw the pistol then the look in her eyes and cried out in terror. She shot him dead. Right between the eyes.

  Ray cut her feet free but made no move to take the pistol.

  ‘What do I do with this?’ She asked, holding up the pistol.

  ‘Keep it. When you come across the next person who wants to rape you, you`ll know what to do!’ Ray answered. ‘My name is Ray, Ray King. Who are you?’

  ‘I`m Clemantine Baker, my friends call me Clem.’

  ‘Well Clem, if I take off one of these cretin’s shirts would you wear it?’

  ‘No way!’

  ‘And I suppose if I take off my tee shirt you’ll wear it?’

  ‘Well yes, it`s better than walking around naked!’

  Ray took of his tee shirt for Clem to put on, then started dragging one of the bodies into the car Clem had been tied to. As he collected them he removed the bolts and after wiping them, slid them back into his quiver. The bolt that flew into the churchyard was left.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Clem asked.

  ‘We are going to cremate them, to stop polluting the country and stop the wild dogs having food. The more of the wild dogs that die the better!’ Ray answered. ‘You could help!’

  Together they piled all six bodies into the car and Ray stabbed the petrol tank. He caught some of the petrol dribbling out in one of the hub caps and splashed it over the bodies inside. When they were well doused he soaked a rag in the petrol, lit it and threw it inside. They stood and watched it burn.

  ‘It was a good job you were passing.’ Clem declared.

  ‘It was a good job you didn`t change your pants this morning!’ Ray retorted.

  ‘They were all I had and water is scarce as well!’ Clem complained.

  ‘Let`s go shopping then!’ Ray replied.

  ‘But I haven’t’- She stopped in mid sentence. ‘I don`t believe I was going to say that I didn`t have any money!’

  ‘It`s all free on Wednesdays.’ Ray quipped.

  ‘Is it Wednesday?’ Clem asked.

  ‘I don`t rightly know Clem but we’ll pretend it is shall we?’

  ‘Okay Ray, Wednesday it is! Let`s go shopping!’

  Ray led the way to his car but only drove as far as the industrial estate.

  ‘Where is the clothes shop?’ Clem asked.

  ‘Not here, that`s for sure but my van is here.’

  He unlocked the yard and drove his van out, then locked the yard again. When Clem went to get into the van Ray stopped her.

  ‘You drive that one.’ He explained.

  ‘But I can`t drive!’ Clem argued.

  ‘You couldn`t shoot a while ago and now you have one notch to put on the pistol!’

  ‘It`s your funeral if I dent it!’ Clem warned.

  ‘You dent that one and we`ll take another one, you`ll learn how to aim it sooner or later.’

  Clem sat in the driving seat. ‘Show me.’

  Ray went through what the controls did and stood back. She lurched backwards, then forwards, then started to move forward slowly. Changing gear was a noisy affair but she kept going. Ray jumped into the van and followed.

  It took a while to get to their destination, with several hair raising near misses but they arrived and parked. Clem was full of herself when they arrived. Ray forced the door and jammed it up with a chair when they were inside, then they both took a trolley and shopped.

  Clem filled four trolleys to Ray’s two by the time she was satisfied that she had enough, she was also tried on clothes until she had on what she wanted to wear. As the trolleys were being loaded into the van Clem drew her pistol and fired. A dog fell dead. More followed and they both fired several shots before the dogs ran off in fear.

  ‘Wow!’ Clem cried. ‘That was fun. You don`t know just how many dogs have tried to get their teeth into me, since they found out where I was! Where now?’

  ‘The supermarket first, I need to stock up a bit as I have two extra mouths to feed.’

  ‘Two extra mouths?’

  ‘Yes, we have a guard dog, a big guard dog and he is friendly. Had I found you before him, he would probably be dead by now!’

  They stopped at the super market and loaded on more food, Ray started the little generator inside the van so that the freezer in there would get cold. When he stepped out of the van, he came face to face with a snarling pack of dogs. They had not shut the gate after coming in. A bang caused one dog to yelp and flop down. The one bang was followed by many more until they all lay dead. Ray had not drawn his gun.

  ‘You learn quick Clem.’

  ‘Used to love dogs, don’t anymore. I`ll have to see what this guard dog is like.’ She walked over and swung the gate closed. ‘That will stop any more of them bothering us.’

  They loaded the food on the van, then Ray checked the fuel level on the store’s generator supply.

  ‘It will stop in about two days.’ He commented. ‘By then we will have to have shifted all the frozen food. The rest we can get at our leisure! Now we need to find you a bed and as we are in town, it might as well be a new bed.’

  Ray drove to the gate and stood guard as Clem opened it, she ran to her car, followed him out of the gate and closed it while he stood guard again. Now he led and she followed. He drove round until he found a shop that sold beds and Clem chose her bed but they loaded on several beds just in case they found anyone else. With them loaded he drove out into the country and soon drove up to the gates in front of his new house. He pushed the button to open the gate with the dog barking a greeting inside. They both drove in and ray closed the gate before climbing down to greet the dog.

  ‘Hello Blue.’ He said and stroked him.

  Clem climbed down and after an initial hesitation she stroked him as well.

  ‘Why Blue?’ She asked.

  ‘Look at his tail.’

  Blue’s tail was covered in blue paint.

  Ray opened the door to the van and Blue jumped in to get a lift back to the house, then they drove up to the house and unloaded the van and fill more deep-freezes. When it was all done Ray led the way inside. They had to drag the beds upstairs but instead of bolting the bed together, Clem opted to sleep on the mattress.

  ‘I`ll run you a bath.’ He declared when all the beds were upstairs. ‘Put the kettle on, it goes on a gas ring and you light it by pushing the button on the front.’

  ‘All mod cons then. Does
that mean you have hot water?’ Clem asked.

  ‘Yes hot running water, or there was when I left.’ He filled the bath and sat downstairs watching a film while she wallowed in the bath for an hour, trying to wash the memory of the six men, from her body.

  He made her coffee and she sat in the bath drinking that, not bothering to cover anything up when he walked in, as he had seen it all already! Later she curled up in the other armchair with the dog at her feet and they watched two more films before they went to bed. Blue followed her into the room she chose to sleep in and curled up on the floor next to her mattress.

  Ray lay in bed going over the events of the day. The deaths, were they necessary, the dog, was that a good idea or just a weak moment and Clem, now at least he had someone to talk to. In a few years if no one else arrived on the scene, then he might do more than talk to her! The night faded and he fell asleep with nothing decided.

  Morning was different. Clem was still asleep in bed when Ray walked round the grounds with Blue to give him some exercise. They came back and both ate a good breakfast before doing their own thing, Blue creeping into Clems` room to sleep some more and Ray to the cellar, to collect more ammunition to replace what they had used. While he was in there he heard running water again but there was no bath was emptying this time. He traced the noise to the floor and found heavy metal plates in the middle. He lifted one of them and found his stream, running under the house, a place he had not thought of looking. He saw the hose at one end and instead of ignoring it he investigated it. Up until now he assumed it was an old hose which had been dumped there, now he found it was connected to a pump which sat in its own well under the cellar floor. He assumed that they used the water to water the garden, now it would be used to refill the tank in the loft when the water main finally failed. All he had to do was to connect it to the cold main feed and use some sort of water level switch to control it. He had to admit that this house had more possibilities than he first anticipated. He put the ammunition into the car and van so that they were ready to go, then cooked Clem a breakfast and carried it up to her. He was not planning to do this often but for today he felt it was a special occasion! He took away the cold coffee and replaced it with hot, hoping to get her out of bed, then went down to find something else to do.

  Clem finally came downstairs an hour later, yawning but smiling.

  ‘I can`t believe it has all ended and I can live again!’ She declared. ‘You don`t know what it was like living in that church!’

  ‘Why live in a church? What was wrong with your house?’

  ‘Too many memories there, I watched my little brother die and I couldn`t do anything! When I had to watch both of my parents die, it was too much. I couldn`t bury them so I set fire to the house and set up home in the church. On reflection it would have been a good idea to move my clothes out before I burnt the house down but I don`t think I was thinking to clearly then.’

  She sat on his lap.

  ‘Thank you for everything.’

  ‘I needed company or I would have gone mad, the dog might have done it but a pretty young girl will definitely do it!’ Ray answered and put his arms round her.

  ‘So what do we do today?’ Clem asked, enjoying contact with a friendly human being.

  ‘Have you collected enough clothes yet?’ Ray asked knowing how many clothes Miriam had and still looked for more.

  ‘I was thinking about that, the weather will change soon and it will get cold so we ought to go wet weather clothes shopping!’ Clem answered sensibly.

  ‘Sounds good to me, there certainly isn`t enough time to do what I was planning to do now.’

  ‘Why? What did you have planned?’ Clem asked.

  ‘I was passing a shop in the village yesterday. I saw that it had the door ajar, and I thought I saw someone inside. I drove on and was going to walk back just to see who it was when I got involved with your little problem.’

  ‘Little problem! Whoever it is I am going to give them a big kiss when I meet them!’ Clem replied. ‘Do you want to go now then?’

  ‘No we`ll winter shop, but not just for us, we`ll bring a lot of different sizes and put them in the spare room.’

  ‘Which one?’

  ‘The one we are going to store the tins in.’

  ‘We haven`t stored any tins upstairs’- She paused- ‘Yet! I take it we stop at the supermarket on the way home. Do we take both vehicles?’

  ‘No that would be a waste of fuel, once we run out of fuel we have to find another way to get around!’ Ray answered.

  ‘Come on then! Who`s driving?’ She cried and jumped up.

  ‘You if you want.’ Ray answered but regretted it later.

  Clem drove to the shop and Ray unscrewed the door to let them inside. He went one way with a supermarket trolley and Clem went the other. She stood in front of a large mirror and tried different things on, including a skimpy bikini- for the summer. It was when she took it off and stood there naked once more that the hairs on her neck started to rise. She did not turn round but glanced in the mirror. A man stood there transfixed, watching her. She turned round without diving for her gun, as she could not see any sort of weapon in the man’s hands.

  Ray loaded up a trolley but when he took it to the door ready to load on he felt a draught. He traced it to an open window and immediately went in search of Clem to warn her.

  ‘You could turn round when you see a lady changing!’ Clem scolded.

  It seemed to jerk the man looking at her back into life.

  ‘Sorry, you are the first girl I have seen close up for some time and to see so much nearly gave an old man a heart attack!’ He answered and obediently turned his back.

  Clem saw Ray hovering nearby, his crossbow raised.

  ‘We have a new friend, Ray.’ She called as though she did not know he was there.

  Ray waited a few seconds then walked out from where he was standing. He looked at Clem, who was still naked, then at the man with his back turned.

  ‘We are getting winter wear Clem he scolded, you`ll give someone a heart attack standing there like that!’

  Clem slipped into a changing room and Ray walked up to the man who turned round as he approached him.

  ‘Ray King.’ He announced and held out his hand.

  ‘William Butler.’ The man answered and shook ray’s hand gladly. ‘Most call me Will.’

  ‘Nice to meet you Will, you`ve met Clemantine, she answers to Clem.’

  ‘I saw her drive up. She drives well!’

  ‘You didn`t see her when we left the house. Talking of houses, we are living away from the built up area and we have hot running water, food and power. Do you need somewhere to live?’

  ‘As long as the rent isn`t to high!’ Will answered with a smile.

  ‘Welcome aboard Will, get shopping, you`ll need clothes, summer and winter but I`d hold the cossie!’

  Will laughed. As he did so Clem walked out, fully clothed.

  ‘Sorry about that.’ She said contritely. ‘I didn`t think anyone was there apart from ray and he`s seen it all before.’

  ‘So have I now.’ Will answered. ‘At my age something like that can be fatal!’

  They loaded the van and drove back to the supermarket to collect tins of food, making sure they closed the gate once they were inside.

  ‘You`d better have this.’ Ray said when the gate was closed and gave Will a pistol. ‘Can you fire a gun?’

  ‘Oh yes I can fire a gun.’ He answered. It was on my ‘to get’ list, some sort of weapon. I like the crossbow.

  ‘I chose this because it will keep firing long after the bullets in the guns are spent.’ Ray answered.

  ‘I can load cartridges if I have the right gear.’ Will answered as they wheeled their trolleys into the store.

  ‘We might have need of your services then, what else can you do?’ Ray asked.

  ‘I was a technician at a power station, I knows what makes one of them tick but a fat lot of good that will do me now!’


  ‘You never know.’ Ray answered but said no more.

  They loaded tins of food on to the van and Clem drove to the gate. When Ray went to open the gate he was met by a pack of dogs. He closed it again, very quickly.

  ‘We have company.’ He declared and started to climb onto the roof.

  The others followed and they kept firing until the dogs were dead, or had run away in fright. Ray climbed down and opened the gate. Clem drove through and Ray closed the gate again, Ray and Will recovered all the crossbow bolts. Some fired by Will.

  ‘That`s a nice toy.’ He said as they drove back to the house.

  Blue came running to meet them, barking loudly.

  ‘He`s with us!’ Clem shouted, forcing Will’s pistol back down.

  When she drove in and opened the door Blue scrambled into the van and Will met him for the first time.

  After a good meal and a bath Will sat in the television room talking to them and stroking Blue.

  ‘Am I the first you have found?’ He asked.

  ‘No, there have been others but they weren`t so friendly.’ Clem declared and went on to explain how she had met Ray and in what circumstances.

  ‘That was the clan then. They take anyone in and make them work for them. Women and girls are their playthings, to do with as they like as long, as they do not kill them. They are needed for breeding and recreation.’ Will explained.

  ‘Where do they hail from?’ Ray asked.

  ‘No idea but they are worth keeping away from, especially as you have just killed six of their members.’ Will answered. ‘They won`t be too happy with you!’

  ‘I can understand that.’ Ray answered. ‘And I`ll be quite happy to stay away from them as long as they stay away from me.’

  He walked over to the new drinks cabinet and poured three brandies.

  ‘What if I don`t like it?’ Clem asked.

  ‘Then I`ll drink yours.’ Ray answered.

  In the end Clem added orange juice to the brandy and drank it, she liked the warm glow it gave her.

  ‘So are we watching a film?’ She asked.

  When Ray walked down the stairs in the morning Will was already there talking to Clem.