by S G Read
‘Very.’ Brian answered.
Clem smiled. ‘Well Brian. You can drive me back to the house: James will follow in my car! It doesn’t matter to me how long you take but the sooner we get there the sooner you get fed! James bring the book!’
‘Okay, I’ll follow on behind you.’
Clem led Brian to a nearby house and tried the door which opened.
‘Best cover your face.’ Brian warned. ‘It stinks in here.’
Clem did just that and found the keys to a car. All she had to do now was to find out which car. The keys opened the fifth one she tried.
‘There you are Brian, wheels.’ She said and tossed him the keys. ‘Put them into the ignition and we will start your lesson but remember, before this attack, I couldn’t drive!’
They sat in the car and Brian followed Clem’s instructions. He stalled it eight times but on number nine they moved off. He drove slowly and did not change gear until Clem told him to and she had to tell him several times, getting louder and more insistent as she did. He did so with a crunch and the car leapt a little bit but it kept going. She told him where to drive and as he drove the car the weaving across the road lessened. It took a straighter line, right in the middle but that did not matter. At the gates he had to stop as no one opened the gates for them. Clem climbed out and made the agreed signal, from where Brian could not see. The gates opened and Clem climbed back into the car. Brian coaxed it forward with more control this time and changed gear before Clem shouted at him. He stopped by the garage and James parked beside him. A group emerged from the house.
‘This is Brian, he can drive now.’ Clem informed them. ‘We need to go back and shut the door, he forced it open!’
‘I’ll do it!’ Will retorted and walked off towards the van.
‘I’ll come with you, I think I am getting house crazy.’ Ralph added and limped after him.
‘Does the doctor say you can?’ Ray asked.
Ralph laughed. ‘Wherever did you get the idea that anyone listens to what a doctor tells them?’ He answered and did not stop.
‘Welcome Brian. I am Ray, you met Clem and James. That is Ralph our doctor and the one in front is Will. She is Donna our nurse and our cook, they are John and Jethro. I’ll introduce you to the children later.’
‘He is hungry.’ Clem added.
‘Come this way then Brian.’ Donna invited. ‘And I’ll dish you up something which resembles stew! Or it did when I made it!’
Will and Ralph drove out the gates and they closed after them, the rest followed Brian inside, James was still carrying the phone book. He gave it to Jethro and Jethro leafed through the pages until he found what he wanted.
‘Any idea where that is?’ He asked, pointing to a place on one page.
‘Yes, I know that, had to go there once.’ Ray answered.
‘Take me there and I’ll show you how to mix cement big time!’
‘When Will and Ralph get back we’ll go there, I’d like to know there is someone here to protect the others.’ Ray answered. Ray set Ralphy the task of finding out what was happening in both of the other camps while they were away.
Half an hour later they were on their way. Jethro, Ray, John and James, all in the van. They drove to the cement works and Jethro looked at the lorries parked there.
‘This one’s no good: it has a load set hard in the back. Not much chance of getting that out but the other two are okay.’ He commented as he walked round. He climbed up into the chute over the top of the lorries and checked what was in there. ‘Got enough cement for now and a fair bit of ballast but we need to fill the water vat.’
‘Find a stream James, somewhere where we can drop the pump in.’ Ray ordered.
It took James sometime to find one.
‘It’s about a hundred yards over there,’ he announced when he came back, ‘and quite shallow.’
Ray took the time to walk to it with John.
‘It looks like it comes from where we were.’ John observed.
‘They might take their water from it.’ Ray replied.
They followed the line back and lifted a manhole which they thought might be over the stream. It did not want to lift but they got it up in the end. Their reward was a sump with a pump in it. By now Jethro was back down from the tower.
‘We just need to wire that pump to a generator and fill the vat with water and we are ready to rock and roll.’ He declared.
Ray cut the wire coming out of the pump where he wanted to connect it but saw it was three phase wiring.
‘We need the other generator.’ He complained. ‘Still we weren’t ready to start yet, were we?’
‘No! We need to dig the holes yet.’ Jethro answered.
‘We also need wire to run in the trench to link the towers together and to give them some power.’ Ray added. ‘We’ll get that on the way back!’
They collected more wire than they would need, one armoured for power and one multi cored in case they were able to put a radio in the towers. Then they drove back with the idea of starting to dig foundations and trenches.
The leader of the East Anglia settlement called his meeting. Everyone knew what it was about and although the clan might come back at any time, the rest of the settlement were prepared to try to fend them off, instead of going down there to sort them out. The four young men who had lost their wives were left to start out on their own.
‘East Anglia calling Kent: anyone there.’ Trevor their leader asked into the radio.
‘Ralphy here East Anglia: Do you have any news?’
‘Yes. Four men are on their way to rendezvous with you.’
There was a delay while Ralphy spoke to someone. ‘What do they look like East Anglia and what are they driving?’
‘They are in a land rover. They are Jacob Fleming. He has brown hair, brown eyes and wearing jeans, tee shirt and a denim jacket. The second is Richard Close; he has brown hair, brown eyes and is wearing black cords and a padded shirt. Number three is Jason Smith; he has fair hair, blue eyes and is wearing jeans and a tee shirt. Number four is Kevin Duke; he has red hair, green eyes and is wearing the same but with a sweat shirt over the top of the tee shirt! They are starting today but they will not race in case they run into the clan! Look for them later today or sometime tomorrow!’
‘Okay; Thank you East Anglia.’ Ralphy put it back to receive. ‘Only four of them daddy.’
‘It’s okay son, at least we are doing something now! Which is better than laying there with a bad foot!’
When the four men from the East Anglia settlement left their camp, they were bitter men. They were the only ones to lose their women and no one else was willing to help. They drove for a while on the empty roads but slowed when they were getting close to the QE 2 Bridge. They took out powerful binoculars and scanned the area in front of them. They could see men manning a road block on the bridge.
‘I suppose the tunnels are flooded.’ Jacob Fleming declared. ‘What do we do now?’
‘What about the new tunnel?’ Richard Close asked.
‘Flooded I suppose.’ Kevin Duke answered.
‘Worth a look though?’ Jacob declared. More a fact: than a question.
The fourth man did not answer. They changed direction to keep them out of sight of the men on the bridge, so that they could get to the tunnel unseen.
It was flooded but Jason, the fourth man had not given up. ‘If we go and get scuba gear, we can park here, sort of haphazard like and swim through. They will think it was an abandoned car if anyone comes past. We can swim through and steal dry clothes and another car on the other side.
‘It might just work!’ Jacob declared.
They drove off to get what they needed. Their first port of call was a scuba hire shop. It took a while to find four full tanks but they did. Luckily there was more than one shop on the waterfront where they chose to look. They drove away fully kitted out for a swim through the tunnel to the other side. They unloaded the car and Jacob parked their car some distance away, in a
mongst other cars which were just as badly parked. He walked back and suited up. They wrapped the guns they had in plastic, to try to keep them dry, they needed weapons in case they met the clan.
When Ray and his party returned Ralphy relayed the news to them.
‘Only four!’ Ray complained. ‘Still it is better than none at all and these men have a reason to fight!’
‘If we dig now, you can come with us and show us what to do at the cement works. Then we can fill the footings and you can be working with John and Brian as your body guards, while we try to link up with the newcomers. Do you shoot Brian?’
‘Sounds like I do now!’ Brian answered. ‘Better give me a shotgun though, less chance of missing!’
They dug the trenches and the bases for the first two towers, then Jethro showed them just how to mix up concrete in one of the cement lorries. They took the other generator with them to make sure they could get water, as it was a three phase generator. When the first lorry was emptied he also showed them how to wash them out to keep them clean and ready for the next load. They could not afford to let the concrete set in the lorry. They did the first base and half the trench with the first two loads, then drove off to get more concrete, while James and Clem mixed up in a cement mixer to make sure the cement did not start to go off before they returned.
The second two loads finished the trench and the second tower base. Clem and James volunteered to wash out both lorries; it was better than mixing cement! Dogs often appeared on the edge of the trees but the dogs did not come close enough for them to shoot them. They were learning! The trip to find more animals was forgotten for now and would be until they had more room to keep them.
The first blocks went on early in the afternoon. These were double hollow concrete blocks. Heavy and very strong! Jethro laid them in a square but when he was on the fourth course he stopped.
‘They are too heavy to lift higher, I need scaffolding or something.’ He explained.
As a quick cure the flat bed lorries were parked on either side and scaffold planks laid from one to another as a base. The digger lifted the blocks on to the flat beds and someone moved them to where Jethro was working. As he was building he was including the base of the wall, making sure the blocks were tied in and as the tower went up the twin block sloping wall went further along the base. At seven blocks he stopped to let them build a higher platform and to let the cement go off a bit. After all he did not want it to fall down.
The four men from the East Anglian settlement emerged from the other side of the tunnel. They walked out dripping wet and cold despite the wet suits they were wearing. They carried the guns and checked all round before they came out into sight. There were no cars around and no houses. That meant they had to walk. They hid the scuba gear inside the tunnel but kept the wet suit on to warm them up as they walked. They took their shoes out of the bags they were in and found that they were soaked, the bags had leaked. They still put them on but dropped the bags with the wet clothing out of sight. They unpacked the guns making them a strange sight indeed as they walked along the road! With no idea where they were going they started walking until they saw a house and a car! The door to the house was unlocked so they had no need to break into the house to search for the keys. Inside they found two women reading.
‘Hello.’ One woman said in surprise. ‘Are you with the rescue people?’
‘Sort of.’ Jacob replied. ‘We need to borrow you car.’
‘Not much petrol left,’ the second woman answered, ‘and the pump won’t work at the local garage!’
‘We’ll fill it up while we are out.’ Jacob replied.
‘The keys are on the hook by the door!’ The first woman called.
The four men looked at each other. It was obvious that these women needed help.
‘We’ll also find ourselves a car. We were looking at the possibility of getting the tunnel open but without power it is not possible!’ Jacob replied. ‘Someone took our car and our clothes!’
‘Turn left at the crossroad and then first right. You will pass a lot of cars and all the owners are dead, we checked so you can take anyone you want. When you reach the end of the road turn right and you will come to a tailors where you can get some clothes!
They took the keys and drove away, following the directions. They found two cars and the tailor but it was a bespoke tailor. They went in dressed in wet suits and came out dressed in suits! They found the garage and found a small hand pump to pump fuel into the cars. It took a long time but when they finished all the cars were full and they kept hold of the hand pump, so that they could fill them again if necessary. They also found a food shop with food in it. When they returned they had food and drink. The food needed cooking but the house had a calor gas oven and the women started cooking straight away.
‘Did you find your car?’ The taller woman asked, she was the second woman to speak.
‘No!’ Kevin answered. ‘Or our clothes.’
‘It was probably that lot from London they take all they can. We kept out of sight to make sure they did not take us!’ The same woman answered. ‘I’m Laura by the way, Laura Macdonald. She is Hetty Evans. They took two women from this area: we saw them when we were out shopping. Shot two of the men with them and took one with them, tied up he was!’
The two women cooked a good meal out of the tins of food the four found in the shop and they sat down to eat it with the wine they had also found.
‘What are your plans?’ Jacob asked the two women while they ate.
‘We were waiting until someone came along, someone, not like the last lot and ask them!’ Laura answered. ‘What is happening in this country?’
‘It is not only in this country but world wide!’ Jacob answered. ‘It was a world wide terrorist attack designed to kill everyone except them and then they would take over the world I suppose but we have seen no sign of invaders, just the same group who you saw. They took our wives and we plan to meet up with another group and go and get them back!’
‘Where is this other group?’ Hetty asked.
‘We don’t know.’ Jason admitted. ‘We just have a rendezvous point where we will be met, they don’t want the clan to know where they are!’
‘You can come with us.’ Richard offered. ‘You will run out of food and gas to cook with here fairly soon and then you will have to light fires to cook with. The other group don’t have enough members to help us out yet but two more hands would help and you would have company!’
‘The food is a problem, although we already had to borrow a new cylinder of gas.’ Laura replied. ‘And some company would be nice, wouldn’t it Hetty?’
‘Oh yes.’ Hetty answered.
Jacob looked out of the window. ‘It is starting to get dark so we will set out in the morning if you don’t mind us sleeping here?’
‘Not at all:’ Laura answered. ‘But there are only three bedrooms.’
‘We’ll sleep down here tonight.’ Kevin answered. ‘We will leave early tomorrow so pack a bag before you go to sleep.’
‘Park your cars round the back out of sight, just in case we have visitors again.’ Hetty suggested, pointing to where she meant them to park.
Kevin and Jacob complied, a visit from the clan now could be difficult!
When Clem and James finished washing out the lorries, Ray sent them out to the arranged rendezvous with the East Anglian contingent. The watched from the trees but saw no one before dark and drove back to the house.
They raised the platform they were using to lay the blocks by putting blocks under the scaffold boards and extra boards on more blocks on the actual lorry bed. It was not the best idea but it looked good although no more blocks were laid that day!
‘What we need is scaffolding.’ Jethro declared as he ate his dinner.
‘And one of those things you can go up in the air on!’ Clem answered. ‘I’ve always wanted to ride on one of them!’
‘Is that why we want one?’ James asked.
‘
No! Don’t be silly! We need that to lift the rocks up on to the scaffold!’ Clem answered.
‘The rocks are called blocks!’ James retorted.
‘Rocks, blocks: you knew what I meant!’ Clem replied.
‘So you can go out and get a couple of them things tomorrow.’ Ray said in case the argument escalated.
‘Two?’ Clem asked.
‘Yes two.’ Ray answered.
‘We will have to leave one of the cars there!’ She declared.
‘Are you afraid someone will steal it?’ Will asked.
‘No but’- Clem started.
‘It’s settled then! Brian will drive you there, he needs the practice!’ Ray said overriding her.
They both paled at the thought but said no more.
After a restless night Kevin of the East Anglian settlement was watching out the window when a car drove slowly by. He did not move, as the movement might be detected and he was not very visible where he sat. The car did not stop and he counted four armed men on board. As soon as the car had passed he woke the others.
‘Four armed men in a car just went by.’ He said when they were awake.
‘I’ll make sure the women don’t do anything silly.’ Jacob whispered and walked up the stairs.
‘We saw them!’ Laura declared watching out of the stairs window. ‘A good job you did park round the back! Well done Hetty.’
‘They are parked over there near the roundabout.’ Laura observed.
Jacob went back down stairs. ‘What are we going to do?’ He asked.
‘The trouble is that we don’t know if our guns will work after being in the water and Richard has gone out after them. You know how hot headed he is! He saw the one who took his wife and is bent on killing him!’
‘These will work!’ Hetty declared and held out two pistols. ‘They were my husbands and we have shot dogs with them.’
The three remaining men went out to help their friend, two of them carrying a pistol each that they knew would work, as well as their own weapons. They crept toward the roundabout using what cover there was and found Richard laying there watching them.