The Fight for Life

by S G Read

  ‘We have someone here who could help but you are some distance from us Mr. Evans.’

  ‘Dai, the name is Dai. It is a shame the fax machine no longer works or you could send us details.’

  ‘We have wind farms over where we are, when we get them connected I’ll get Will to drive down and show you how to connect it but first we have a nest of nasty villainous people who take women for their pleasure. They took a friends wife and we intend to get her back. They have also been out to East Anglia and taken women from them!’

  ‘Sounds like they have been out here as well, Ray. We found two men dead, partly eaten by wild animals but we did not find their women! I will talk to the men to see if we can help in snuffing this nest of villains. We have your frequency now and I will arrange a time with your radio man to call you!’

  ‘We will wait to hear from you. The sooner the nest is sorted the sooner it will be safe to send a party over to you.’ He gave Ralphy the microphone back. ‘Well done Ralphy, see if you can find some more survivors who will help.’

  ‘Okay Ray.’

  Ray searched through the things they had liberated and found a map of the area. It had become apparent to him that any tame animals which were in fields or in runs were at great risk of being killed by the roaming dog packs, they needed collecting up and keeping safe. If there were still some alive!

  He walked into what he assumed was the old library, although there was no longer shelves in there just bare walls and some spare beds piled in the corner. He spread the map on a table which Will had put in there so that he could have a drink nearby when he was reading.

  He noted areas which had their own sort of protection and areas with fields where they could be kept. They needed to erect a large perimeter fence round this area and make sure any wild animals inside were killed. He stood looking at the map and thinking, it was a tall order for so few people but a smaller area would be a waste of time and for now, it could be temporary, to be replaced by something better later.

  ‘A penny for them.’ Will said as he pushed the button to open the gate for the returning shoppers.

  ‘I am thinking that we should erect a fence round this area, or at least start it while the other two survivor settlements work out what they are going to do.’ Ray answered.

  ‘Two settlements?’

  ‘Yes Ralphy found one in Wales.’

  ‘Welsh Wales?’

  ‘Do you know any other?’

  ‘It’s a step away!’

  ‘Not when we can drive down the M4 with no other traffic on it.’ Ray pointed out.

  ‘I have an idea getting to the M4 would be a problem with the clan about!’ Will replied.

  ‘They have had women taken in Wales, so they might just send us some help.’

  ‘What with help from Anglia as well we might be able to sort out the clan, once and for all!’ Will declared.

  ‘They were my thoughts exactly. Now where do we get a lot of fence?’

  ‘A lot of tennis courts?’ Will retorted. ‘And playgrounds in schools, some of them have wire fences round them!’

  ‘Let’s have a meeting!’

  They all helped to carry the clothes to the rooms, including some more for Clem.

  ‘Why do you need so many clothes when you are prone to taking them off?’ Ray asked when he carried a heavy load into her room.

  ‘I did it once!’ Clem complained.

  ‘Twice!’ Ray retorted.

  ‘I hardly knew that Will was watching now, did I? Besides it is three times now.’

  ‘We are having a meeting to discuss our next move, so don’t hang about trying them on!’

  ‘I already tried them on!’ Clem retorted. ‘James was standing guard to make sure no one saw me.’ She added and stuck her tongue out.

  ‘Good that means you can come down now!’

  He walked to the stairs but Clem overtook him, when he reached the library she was there waiting.

  ‘What took so long?’ She chided.

  ‘Old age.’ Ray retorted and sat down. ‘Now we may or may not be getting help from two other settlements. If we do, we can try to take out the clan when they are ready but before then we need to gather up some animals to protect them from the wild animals.’

  ‘How?’ Ralph asked.

  Ray stood up and walked over to where the map lay.

  ‘If we find enough fence and erect it round this area, doing the red areas first, we will be able to make it a dog free area temporarily.’

  ‘Temporarily?’ Will echoed. ‘What will we replace it with?’

  ‘A brick wall, when we have enough bodies and more than one bricklayer.’

  One of the newcomers, Jethro was a bricklayer by trade.

  ‘Where do we get this fence from?’ John asked.

  ‘Anywhere we can. It will be hard work: we need some to go out with those lorries they use to transport animals. Collect some animals and bring them back here. For now they will have to be inside the wall but as soon as it is fenced they can wander in a field.’

  ‘If we find some chickens still alive we can have fresh eggs!’ Donna added.

  ‘What about the tarmac, that has to be replaced?’ Ralph asked. ‘If the clan return and see the damaged road they might put two and two together and come in from the side!’

  ‘Yes that has to be done.’ Ray admitted. ‘Will, Jethro and I will do the asphalt, John, Clem and James, find something to transport animals in and bring back something alive!’

  The three left to get some tarmac and hopefully something to roll it with as last time they had to do it by hand. James drove off in the other direction with Clem and John in the carrier with him. They drove around looking for animals, in one field they saw sheep being attacked by a pack of dogs and stopped. They spread out to shoot as many dogs as they could so that they did not come back before they could take the sheep. In the end all the dogs lay dead or dying but they also had to destroy three injured sheep. The sheep settled down to feed on grass soon after the shooting stopped and the three drove on, spurred by the need of an animal transporter. It took some time but eventually they found one which did not have dead animals rotting inside it. James stopped by it and he and John dragged the dead driver from the drivers’ seat.

  ‘So who drives it?’ He asked.

  ‘I will if you like!’ Clem offered, seeing it as a challenge.

  ‘Knock yourself out. I’ve never driven anything that big before.’ John replied.

  Clem looked at James and smiled, nor had she. She climbed up into the seat, after putting a plastic bag on it, to keep any rotting flesh from touching her. She started it up and drove round in a big circle but stopped.

  James walked over. ‘What’s the matter?’

  ‘Shouldn’t we bring those chickens along as well?’ Clem asked.

  ‘What chickens?’ James asked.

  Clem pointed to a coup surrounded by wire. ‘Those chickens!’

  James looked at the animal transporter and in particularly at the gaps in the sides. ‘They will get out of there!’

  Clem smiled. ‘Yes they would!’ She answered.

  ‘Oh no! Not in my car! They will make a mess everywhere!’ James protested.

  ‘Then we’ll clean it or dump it!’ Clem answered. ‘I’ll help you catch them!’

  It was like a comic turn in a film as all three tried to catch the chickens. They squawked and flew over their heads to land on the other side, some ducked between their legs but they did catch them, one by one and put them in the carrier. James barricaded the front seats with some chicken wire to stop them getting through and landing on his head but when John went to get into the car Clem stopped him.

  ‘Oh no you don’t!’ She cried. ‘See that tractor and trailer over there? Well we need the coup and the wire round it and after the way they were flying we also need the wire over the top!’

  John looked at the tractor and trailer. ‘This was not in my job description!’ He complained and walked over to it. He
checked that the trailer was well attached and climbed up onto the seat. The key was in the ignition and it started without any trouble. The farm had its own supply of cheap diesel and he made sure the tractor was full while James found tools to take the run to pieces. It took a long time to take the run down, then, they still had to get the coup onto the trailer. Between them they managed to get it onto a sheet of corrugated tin, which sat on two poles. They were able to lift the poles and shove the coup up the sheet of tin onto the trailer.

  ‘You do realise it will take a while to get this thing back to the house!’ John remonstrated.

  ‘You go off, we’ll get the sheep.’ James offered.

  ‘What and miss the fun!’ John retorted. He tried the lights. ‘I have lights and I sort of know the way from the sheep field! Let’s go and round up the sheep!’

  Will drove the three of them out in the lorry with the strongest crane on it. They picked up another lorry on the way which Ray drove, then, they headed for the tarmac or asphalt as Ray called it. Jethro found a tipper lorry sitting there minding it’s own business and he took that to collect the tarmac. In the same yard as the tarmac was a roller but last time Will and Ray had ignored it. Jethro hitched it and the trailer it was on behind his lorry ready for the return trip.

  ‘Be a shame to go back empty handed.’ He said looking round the yard. ‘This fence you are going to put up, it should have some strong points to it! I could build towers every now and then to help hold it up.’

  ‘Be a lot of work.’ Ray warned.

  ‘As long as you pay overtime at double the day rate I’ll do it!’ Jethro retorted.

  ‘No problem.’ Ray answered.

  ‘So let us have some of those blocks over there and those lintels. A pallet of bricks to infill with, sand and cement and we can go!’

  They loaded on all they could and then added a few bits more before they drove back. The tarmac was cold instead of hot but they hacked it into submission as they laid it. The heavy roller crunched it down and where a dip appeared, they added more tarmac until the road was better than new. They unloaded the bags of cement into the second garage to keep it dry if it rained but left everything else where it was.

  Clem took several goes to back the lorry up to the gate, John and James opened the back and then opened the gates, which served to fill the gap between the lorry and the gate post. All they had to do now was to get the sheep inside the lorry.

  ‘I have a cunning plan!’ Clem declared.

  ‘I can guess what you were watching last night!’ James replied. ‘So what is this plan?’

  ‘Well you saw how they ran from the dogs, I’ll pretend to be a dog while you go over there and shush them this way. John you stay there so they don’t go back to where I was and we’ll see what happens!’

  They took up their positions and Clem started growling and barking. James started laughing but managed to wave his hands to stop them passing him. John was in fits and the sheep chose to go into the box rather than go near him. James was following and closed the gates to keep them in.

  ‘Brilliant!’ He cried and kissed her.

  ‘Just make sure I don’t bite you.’ She warned.

  John had to turn away: Will had told him about Clem’s party trick.

  ‘I’ll kill that William!’ Clem complained.

  ‘Just remember I am on your side.’ James answered.

  With the sheep loaded they started the long trip back to the house. Well it was made long by the slowness of the tractor and trailer. Neither James nor Clem thought of leaving John behind but just drove slower, stopping now and then if they thought they were too far in front. It was dark by the time they made it back to the house but the people in the house turned flood lights on to show them the way and the three able bodied men came out to help. They lifted the coup off with the crane and put it at the far end where they thought would be easiest to install it. Then Will brought out more floodlights and used the little generator to power them and bathed the area in light. With the four men working and James and Clem bringing whatever they needed, they soon had the run erected. James backed the carrier to the gate and it was covered with whatever was available to stop the chickens escaping. Although they were settled in the car they were soon encouraged to go into the run. James looked in the back of the carrier in despair.

  ‘Anyone got a shovel?’ He asked.

  Everyone had to have a look and Will spotted two eggs, fresh eggs.

  ‘I’ll have them!’ Clem ordered and took them from him. ‘I have a few more here which were still warm which I intend to hatch. We did not catch the rooster, in fact we did not see the rooster and you know what that means!’

  ‘Let’s hope one of them turns out to be a rooster.’ Will moaned and started collecting up the tools.

  ‘What do we do with the sheep?’ James asked.

  ‘Just open the doors, they will find their own way out and there is enough grass to keep them going for quite a while!’ Ray answered. ‘Me I’m for a brandy!’

  He walked inside and found Ralphy sitting by the radio with it switched off.

  ‘Any news?’ He asked.

  ‘No!’ Ralphy answered.

  ‘How far have you got?’

  ‘I did all the frequencies but I might have been at the wrong time for some. Do you want me to try again?’

  ‘Give it a couple of days and try some at random but don’t forget to have some Ralphy time!’

  ‘Okay.’

  Ray poured a glass of brandy and flopped in a chair, it had been a long, tiring day. Will and Jethro did the same. John chose a cup of tea, James and Clem chose wine and no one said anything about them drinking wine at their age.

  Chapter 5

  Clem woke in the morning and looked out of her window to see James round the back of the house cleaning the people carrier. She threw on a pair of shorts and went down to help him, it had been her idea!

  He looked up when she appeared in shorts, it was not that warm.

  ‘I don’t want to get my good clothes wet! Okay?’ She declared and took a bucket to fill.

  He watched her all the way there!

  As the mains water was no longer running they had a push button on the wall which turned on the pump but you had to hold the button in until the bucket was full.

  They all gathered for breakfast. They had to be careful now as the eggs were hatching near the range where it was warm. Clem had driven down to the new hen house and fed them through the wire without going inside. Any new eggs could be hatched instead of them eating them.

  ‘Did you collect the eggs?’ Will asked when she came in.

  ‘No I am letting them hatch them!’

  ‘They’ll go broody after that and we won’t get any more!’ He warned.

  She turned to Ray for confirmation but he did not really know.

  ‘He’s right.’ Ralph added. ‘But the range will take a few more chickens yet and I could rig you up an incubator, if they don’t lay eggs they will still be useful.’

  A big smile covered Clem’s face. ‘I’ll get the eggs after breakfast; we need more chickens before you get eggs Benedict!’

  ‘So what are we doing today?’ Jethro asked.

  ‘Well the same three can go animal hunting, a cow or two would help with the milk situation, it’s a pain when we forget to get one out in time! While you and I could drive over to where the fence will start and we can discuss it.’

  ‘Fair enough.’

  Ray sent Clem, James and John off to find more animals for their settlement. For now anything would do but they would have to be inside the wall unless they could survive outside safely. A large bull for instance could be left where it was as long as it had enough food, dogs were unlikely to bother it!

  Ray, Will and John drove round to the corner of the wall where the fence would start from. This was the left hand rear corner when you stood looking at the house from outside the gates.

  ‘I thought I could build a tower here to strengthen t
he wall as it is a bit old and the fence could be fixed to it and then I put another tower where it needs extra support. It will have the metal uprights but extra strength and even a look out post would help. Eventually I would like put a wall between each tower and then the whole thing would be protected.’

  ‘Why?’ Will asked.

  ‘Sheep are stupid animals and a pack of dogs barking outside the fence where they can see them will make them do silly things. Enough maybe to hurt some without the dogs getting near them!’ Jethro explained.

  ‘They are that silly eh?’ Will declared. ‘Wooden fences inside the wire ones will help!’

  ‘If you plan to build towers all round the area and fill the gaps later we could put in foundations, they would stop dogs tunnelling and we could run some wires under the footings to link each tower to the house!’ Ray added.

  ‘Lot of cement needed.’ Will noted.

  ‘I might be able to help there as well,’ Jethro added, ‘but I am new to this area so we need an old yellow pages.’

  Of course when they looked, there were no yellow pages in the house, so James and Clem went to the local post office for one.

  ‘We left the door closed didn’t we?’ Clem asked but it was a rhetorical question. She had already pulled the Kalashnikov from under the seat.

  James pulled his from the back seat and they investigated, slowly and quietly. A man was crouched behind the counter.

  ‘Who are you?’ Clem asked with her gun pointing at him.

  ‘I’m Brian. Who are you?’

  Clem had not seen a car outside, or one parked, which she did not think had not been parked there before.

  ‘Don’t tell me you don’t drive.’ She answered.

  ‘But I don’t!’ The man retorted.

  ‘I’m Clem and from today you do drive! No one needs to walk when there are so many cars around, sitting doing nothing and don’t worry about smashing them up, there are plenty more.’ She lowered her gun. ‘That is James.’ She added pointing to James who was at the other end of the counter with his gun trained on him. ‘Are you hungry?’