The Fight for Life

by S G Read

  The drive went as expected with no other cars on the road but as they approached the M3, a little girl stood out in the road and flagged them down. They were both hesitant but John stopped. The little girl walked to Laura’s window and she wound it down.

  ‘Are you with the clan?’ She asked.

  ‘No we are not!’ Laura remonstrated. ‘Are you?’

  ‘No: We don’t like the clan. You’d better follow me.’

  They followed her for a few steps then Laura leant out the window.

  ‘It is probably safer if you get in with us, if there is trouble about.’ She called.

  ‘Okay.’ The little girl answered and jumped into the back seat. ‘Drive down there.’

  John followed her directions, without knowing why and when she told them to park, he asked why.

  ‘There is a big thing coming up called a tank, I think. Daddy is going to blow it up and shoot all the men with it. I was told to watch the road and make sure no one came along and got hurt.’

  They realised now that the idea was to give the little girl a job which would keep her away from the shooting, they were obviously not expecting anyone to drive along the road.

  ‘Can we watch?’ He asked.

  ‘Okay; follow me.’

  John took the Kalashnikov from under the seat where he had stuck it. He nodded to it. ‘Just in case I need it.’ He explained and started to follow.

  She led them up a slope onto the M3 where they could see nothing and no one.

  ‘They are along there a bit, we should be safe here.’ The little girl said and settled down to wait.

  ‘How do you know it is coming?’ Laura asked. ‘They were supposed to go out to the Isle of Wight to look for someone!’

  ‘There are no boats there anymore, we hid them all. I’m Lizzie by the way.’

  ‘I am Laura and he is John. We were on our way home from seeing friends, so thank you for your help.’

  ‘That’s okay.’

  It seemed to take ages, certainly long enough for them to have crossed the M3 and be well out of sight by the time the clan tank came through but this was another group of like minded people and they felt obliged to help if they could.

  Finally they could feel the unmistakable rumble of the tank where they were laying. Soon after that they saw it and the two cars with it. Suddenly the ground under the tank erupted and the tank danced for a few seconds before settling back down. It swung the gun about menacingly but there was no one visible. When it moved forwards it left one track where it had been and it suddenly turned. They fought to drive it but it was no good, without the track it would not go forward, it would only go in circles. One of the cars was thrown over in the explosion, the men climbed out, shaken. That was when the firing started. Both cars were the target with no bullets wasted on the tank. The tank opened fire at the men shooting and they had to duck down when it fired in their direction but they were well spread. The men on the road fell dead apart for four who ran towards John, Laura and Lizzie. John waited until they were very close and then they both opened fire. Two died and two stopped and tried to fire back but they were shot as well. A loud bang warned of an impending shell and all three ducked down. It exploded near them and they slid down the bank out of sight, taking Lizzie with them.

  ‘Who are you?’ A man asked.

  ‘This is Laura and he is John, daddy.’ Lizzie declared. ‘I said they could help!’

  ‘I told you to watch up the road for cars!’

  ‘I did daddy and they came along so I told them where to wait.’

  Lizzie’s father smiled. ‘I just can’t keep you out of the action can I.’ He declared. ‘I am Charles Short: Thank you.’ He said to John and Laura. ‘Have you any idea how to deal with a tank with one track on which is still firing at you?’

  ‘In the words of our tank expert, you blow off its track and then brew it up!’ Laura answered. ‘And as you have already done the hard bit, I suppose we have to brew it up now.’

  ‘How?’ Charles asked.

  ‘Molotov cocktails I suppose.’ John answered. ‘I’ll show you how to make them. We need petrol.’

  ‘We have that.’ Charles declared.

  ‘And bottles you don’t mind wasting.’

  ‘In a good cause, if it works.’ Charles said and led them down the slope.

  There was the occasional gun fire as men fired at the tank and the tank fired back. They had no where to go but they were not giving up without a fight.

  John filled a bottle with petrol and put a rag in it as a wick.

  ‘You light the wick and then throw the bottle.’ He explained.

  They made several more and made their way across the A303 and up to where the tank was stranded on the M3.

  ‘We need a diversion.’ John said thoughtfully.

  Charles waved his hand and the firing started in earnest from the other side.

  ‘A diversion.’ He said with a smile. ‘Give me one of them.’

  He took a bottle, lit the wick and stood up carefully, making sure the tank was not looking his way. It was firing in the other direction. He ran out and threw the bottle, then retreated quickly. The bottle smashed on the good track and the side of the tank burst into flames. As Charles dived over the edge the gun raised lumps off the road and the verge where he had been.

  ‘Damn. Not far enough.’ He complained.

  The turret stayed pointing their way as if to say, no more of them please. To move forward was certain death. It was a stand off until suddenly two men ran forward from the other side with blazing rags hanging out of bottles. They both hit the tank and the flames roared.

  ‘They catch on quick.’ John declared.

  The turret moved toward the other men, John and Charles ran forward with a bottle each to complete the job. The tank now was a furnace. The top opened and a man tried to get out only to be shot and fall back inside. The men inside screamed, then the screaming was followed with silence, then a cheer from the men watching.

  Charles shook John’s hand vigorously. ‘Thank you, thank you, and thank you!’ He cried. ‘And thank you little Lizzie for finding them!’ Her he picked up like a rag doll and squeezed. ‘Come, will get rid of all signs of the action, then we will go back to our headquarters!’

  They removed the crash barrier and a digger chugged up to push the tank off the motorway through the gap. It kept pushing until the tank was next to a house. Then they used anything to hand to cover it, while the digger carried rocks and tar up to patch up the hole in the motorway. Willing hands spread the rocks and tar while they drove a large roller up to finish the job. They put the crash barrier back on and there was little sign that anything had happened there.

  They grouped on the A303 and then drove away from the motorway with John and Laura following. They left the road and went down one small lane after the other until they came to a farm.

  ‘This is home for now.’ Charles declared as he met them. ‘We have to move about; the clan have taken several of our women and young men. We did not know there was a need for care from our fellow man until then. They will not get anymore!’

  ‘Do you have a radio?’ Laura asked as she followed them inside.

  ‘We do but we do not use it. What we say over the radio is telling the clan and not a good idea.’ Charles answered.

  Laura took out the radio. ‘Listen to this and tell me what I said?’ She said and turned it on. The next conversation was the weirdest they had ever heard, sometimes it seemed sensible, other times it was gobbledegook. ‘So what did I say and what did they say?’

  ‘I have no idea.’ Charles answered.

  Laura turned the radio off. ‘I told them about leaving the Welsh settlement and meeting you and asked what was going on back there.’ She turned to John. ‘They made it to the East Anglian settlement and they brought the six children home and found another fighter on the way.’

  ‘That was using the radio and using our code.’ John informed them. ‘We will stay and teach you t
he code so that you can talk to us and the Welsh without the clan knowing what we are planning.’

  ‘What are you planning?’ Another man asked.

  ‘That is Giles Galbraith, his wife and daughter was taken.’ Charles explained.

  ‘We are going up to London to sort out the clan and free all the people they have taken!’ John answered.

  ‘When do we start?’ Giles asked.

  ‘The Welsh had to relocate due to a power station going up in smoke. Now that they have the code and are settled again we can start to plan. We do need Jacob and his men to come back before we can do anything so just listen to the radio.’ Laura answered. ‘They took a friend of mine and killed her father to do it and I aim to see her free before I die!’

  ‘I’ll be listening!’ Giles assured her.

  They started to teach four of them the code that night after a good meal. In the morning the lesson would continue and then John and Laura would be able to go home.

  Ray looked at the new gates, pleased that there were still standing. Today they would put the fence round as far as the gate but leave a gap for cars to go through where Jericho had driven. It would be three days before the gates could be opened according to both Jethro and Tosh. And they would only allow it then after the fence was fixed to it to help hold it up. Ray looked at them and the wooden towers, there was no way they would fall over but he decided to do as the two men wanted. He drove round to where they were rolling out the first length of fence and joined in. The fence between the first two towers was up and this was the piece between the second tower and the next tower. Many hands made light work and the fence was soon up. The fence was buried in the ground to stop dogs tunnelling under it to get in and the digger covered it over again. They had razor wire along the top in case clever dogs tried to climb it.

  That section was completed and the next section between the third and fourth towers nearly finished before lunch. Soon after lunch it was completed and the long section across the front of the settlement run as far as they could. The gate was spanning the road quite near to where James had knocked out his prisoner before crossing the road to kill the man who was going to kill Clem and the trees had been cleared to make way for it. Some of these formed the towers by the gate and the gate itself. They had to join the next section of wire to the last section when they reached the end of each section; this entailed threading a piece of the same wire through both sections to make it one section.

  Several times Ray looked down the road, expecting Laura and John to appear. With them still outside they could not finish the wire as they would not be able to get in!

  Laura was up early talking to the four who were learning the code, Lizzie was listening and Laura let her. After all Ralphy was young and it was his code! John came down from his bedroom and ran them through it again before they ate breakfast then they were on their way with an escort as far as the M3. They set off down the M3 giving a wave as they went and the escort turned back.

  Laura drove along and looked for the A272 turn and after whizzing round Winchester twice she still had not found it. On the second circuit they saw a figure walking along the street and followed it. They did not know if it was a man or a woman. The figure heard the car and hurried into an alley between two houses. John hopped out and followed. The chase speeded up as the hooded figure became frantic. John caught it and tackled it to the ground. He climbed to his feet.

  ‘Sorry about that.’ He apologised. ‘I thought I could help you if I could talk to you.’

  The woman flicked the hood back. ‘Help me! You almost gave me a heart attack!’

  ‘I can understand you running, with the clan about taking women but we are not with the clan, we are against them.’ John continued with the woman still on the ground. ‘We have been over to Wales to enlist the help of the Welsh settlement in dealing with the clan and freeing all the women they have taken.’

  ‘I’m glad of that.’ A man said from behind John. ‘Or I might have had to kill you.’

  ‘Is that before or after I killed you?’ Laura asked from behind him.

  ‘Now I’m damned glad you aren’t with the clan.’ The man answered.

  Laura laughed. ‘I am Laura from the Kent settlement. Are there many of you?’

  ‘About ten altogether now. The clan have raided us several times and each time they have managed to snatch someone.’

  ‘Sounds like you need to move. We have room if you want to come with us.’ Laura offered.

  John helped the woman up.

  ‘That is Lisa My wife. I am Willard Cooper. I have no objections to going with you but we must ask the others. It has to be unanimous.’

  John nodded. ‘We will wait in the car. Just come and tell us one way or the other.’

  Laura and John returned to the car and waited. No one appeared but they did not move.

  ‘How long do we wait?’ John asked after a while.

  ‘Until they have decided I suppose.’ Laura answered and turned on the radio to call the settlement but picked up another signal. Someone was talking to someone but they were not using a code and the other people were the clan!

  ‘Time to go I think.’ John cried.

  ‘Probably the price of their continued existence.’ Laura answered and threw the car into gear.

  The others made a feeble attempt to stop them but failed and Laura turned down a street she had not tried yet. There in front of them was a sign for a car park and for the A272.

  ‘Yippee.’ She cried and put her foot down. ‘The clan are going to be upset with them when they arrive!’

  ‘It’s a good job we did not tell them the code.’ John exclaimed.

  ‘Yes it is!’

  They drove along the A272 as fast as they could in the car they had until John needed a personal break. He jumped out and nipped behind a tree to relieve himself, then hurried back to the car. As he got in he stopped.

  ‘Can you hear that?’ He asked.

  ‘Yes; what is it?’

  ‘If I am not mistaken that is a Harley and it is coming up fast!’

  ‘What do we do?’

  ‘Well we can’t outrun a Harley in this thing, so we hide: It might be the clan on our tail!’ John replied and started looking for somewhere.

  Ahead there was a house with wooden garage doors hanging open.

  ‘Head for that garage.’

  ‘What if there is a car in it?’ Laura asked as she started the engine.

  ‘Then we are in serious trouble!’

  She drove forward, swung up into the drive and sped up into the garage. John leapt out as soon as the wheels stopped and pulled the doors closed. They both watched as three Harley Davidson motor cycles roared by. The drivers were all armed to the teeth and looked very much like clan members. The two moved to the window at the side of the garage and looked out. The motorbikes stopped at the next junction, a roundabout and had a powwow. They were there a short time, and then two of the three rode on at speed.

  ‘They are looking for us.’ Laura declared. ‘Those pieces of filth did a good number on us!’

  ‘Yes they did. When we finally take out the clan we will have to go and have another chat with them!’

  ‘I’ll do the talking then!’ Laura retorted.

  They sat on a tub by the widow looking at the man who had taken up residence on the roundabout wondering what to do. Suddenly he looked up and waved.

  ‘I don’t like the look of that.’ John complained and moved to the door.

  Through the open door he heard the unmistakable drone of a plane.

  ‘They have a plane up as well.’ He exclaimed and pulled the door closed.

  ‘We’ll ask Ray what to do.’ Laura replied and turned on the radio.

  ‘If the clan are listening they won’t understand what we say or where we are but they might be trying to triangulate our position.’ John declared. ‘We’ll soon know.’

  Laura had a conversation with Ralphy to let Ray know what was happening and where they
were, she said it as quick as possible and turned the radio off.

  Ray was hauled away from his work half way through the afternoon to listen to the message, it sounded bad. The workers all followed Ray inside, after screwing the fence in place as a temporary measure. As some dogs might still be inside the area they had fenced off it was still considered dangerous but the planned search seemed likely to be postponed.

  ‘So what do we do?’ Ray asked. ‘I for one am all for going out there and sorting out the clan but how do we deal with a plane?’

  ‘I can help there.’ Jericho answered and walked out. When he walked back in he had a long square metal box.

  He opened it to reveal some sort of missile.

  ‘One of the boats had a few of these on board, well hidden but I was searching for food and searched everywhere. I hid the rest up where I was living, where; hopefully no one will find them!’ He explained.

  ‘Do you know how to fire it?’ Ray asked.

  ‘Oh yes. I did blow up a car with one just to try it out; as you do.’

  Ray smiled. ‘Good. Who’s coming? And remember someone has to guard the settlement.’

  ‘We are getting quite good at it now.’ Jacob declared. ‘So we will offer to go or stay as you want.’

  ‘That is five of us then.’ Ray replied.

  ‘Six!’ Jericho declared. ‘It’s my toy!’

  ‘Six then. Will I want you along with that spiteful little snipers rifle! The rest stay and guard the place. But when we have done with them and rescued Laura and John I want you to go over and recover the rest of those missiles Jericho.’

  ‘No problem. If Will is as good at shooting planes as he is dogs, we may not need the rocket against the plane but we will need it against the tank.’

  ‘Laura met another group, well two to be precise but the first group they met blew the tread of the tank and they were able to brew it up!’ Ray declared. ‘The second group sold them out to the clan!’

  ‘Is that another lot we will have to wipe out?’ Jericho asked.

  ‘We might have to, but with the clan gone they will be on their own. We will be able to find out who was responsible for siding with the clan and punish them. The rest we will work out what to do with!’