31 Days of Autumn

by Fallowfield, C. J.

  ‘You’ll lose me if we don’t do this, Ellie, I’m sure of it. I’d rather go down fighting. I was prepared to die yesterday to protect you and Master Oliver and they took that from me. They took … they took Jenny from us. I need payback. I want to kill the bastard who shot her.’

  I lay on my bed, running my choices through my mind again and again. I had so few, why was I finding it so hard to make a decision? Because the last time you did, your best friend died, Ellie, a voice in my head whispered. I’d shielded Oliver’s eyes from the actual shooting and hadn’t uncovered them until poor Jenny’s body had been removed. I’d had to lie to him and say that they’d let her go, that she was back home looking after Jonas and Eva. He was too young to have to face death or to try and understand it. I gritted my teeth with renewed determination. My son was my priority and he needed me to protect him from all of this. That meant getting him out of this situation by any means necessary.

  ‘How do we do this then?’ I asked, struggling upright to face James.

  ‘Ok, this is how it’s going to go,’ he nodded.

  I struggled up onto my feet as we heard footsteps clunking down towards the inner bunker door. Jesus, it hurt to put weight on my leg, but I had no choice. James was relying on me. He was putting his life on the line, again, the least I could do was endure a little pain. He nodded at me as the door opened and Bravo entered, then closed it behind him, the locks being applied from the outside again. My heart sank. Of all of the captors, Bravo seemed the nicest. He’d always treated us respectfully, making sure that Oliver got peanut butter sandwiches as they were his favourite. He set the small tray of sandwiches and bottles of water on the floor, then looked over at me.

  ‘You have fresh blood on your jeans.’

  ‘I know, it won’t stop bleeding,’ I nodded. Letting James pick off the adhesive glue they’d used to patch me up had been really painful, as had his efforts to force the wound to bleed as we sat with our backs to the camera.

  ‘I need to check your leg, apply fresh dressings.’

  ‘I wouldn’t have thought that you’d care if I died from an infection,’ I scowled.

  ‘I’m just following orders. I need you to take off your jeans and stand by the sink.’

  ‘I’m not taking my jeans off in front of you,’ I shot back. ‘You’re not touching me.’

  ‘I have my orders to make sure your wound was ok.’

  ‘Fine, but I want James to do it, I know him. I don’t want a stranger looking at me in my knickers, thank you very much.’

  ‘I have medical training, I can do it even with my wrists bound. Where’s the harm?’ James called. ‘No point upsetting Mrs. Davenport and having her put up a fight for no reason. I doubt Alfa will be impressed if you go back and say you need help to pin her down.’ Bravo’s eyes shot from me to James and back again and he lifted his hand and ran it over his mouth. He reached for his tranquiliser gun from his leg holster and waved it at me.

  ‘Don’t make me put either of you down. You’ve seen how short the boss’s temper is, there’s no saying what he’ll do if you try anything.’

  ‘Like we’d be that stupid,’ I replied with a roll of my eyes, thinking that’s just how stupid we actually were. Bravo headed over and cut the ties on James’s ankles and grabbed his wrists to haul him up, before stepping behind him with the gun aimed at his back.

  ‘Both of you, move,’ he ordered. I palmed the wall as I hobbled over, grimacing through the pain. Bravo stood at an angle to the screen, his gun trained on James’s back, the first aid box balanced on the sink. I tried not to imagine Dan’s reaction to know that I was standing, in a lace thong, with James crouched in front of me at eye level. Worse was the fact that I was still in the same underwear and clothes I’d been wearing for God knows how many days. My scalp was itchy from my greasy hair and I’d never been so desperate to stand in a shower. I’d take a cold shower over feeling like this. I spotted a small elastic band holding some of the dressing packages together and grabbed it. I scraped my hair back with my fingers and tied it back, grateful to have it out of my face. James applied more of the glue, nearly making me cry as he pinched my skin back together. He’d warned me that messing with it might result in an infection and would definitely make it scar, but I was beyond caring. I wanted Oliver safe. Right now, he was curled up fast asleep in the corner. I hoped that he’d stay like that for what was to come.

  James applied a bandage and looked up at me with a gentle nod. I returned it, nerves suddenly flooding my system as I saw him grimace and slip his restraints. I silently thanked Oliver for his sneakiness with my chewing gum as I let it fall from its position tucked up in the corner of my mouth and carried on chewing it, to make it as soft as possible. I quickly reached down to pull up my jeans as James stood up. Everything happened so fast. One minute Bravo was backing away, telling James and I to return to our makeshift beds at the far side of the bunker, the next it was like I was an extra in The Matrix. James charged backwards, slamming Bravo against the concrete wall, both of them grunting. I reached up and smeared the sticky chewing gum over the camera, obscuring the view of whoever was watching on their tablet screen outside. If he was paying attention, we only had seconds. I saw James’s elbow fly back and up, cracking Bravo on the chin, as he grabbed Bravo’s wrist with his free hand, bashing it against the other wall to force him to drop the gun. James grimaced as Bravo sank his teeth into James’s shoulder and I ripped the gun from Bravo’s hand. James moved forward, then rammed backwards again, winding Bravo and crushing him against the wall as I lifted my shaking hands and pointed the gun at Bravo’s neck, then hesitated.

  ‘It’s a tranq gun, Ellie, you’re only putting him to sleep. You can do it. Hurry,’ James ordered, struggling to keep Bravo pinned to the corner as we heard the sound of the door being unbolted from outside.

  ‘Shit,’ I moaned as I squeezed the trigger, seriously hoping I wasn’t going to miss and shoot James in the face with it. It connected with Bravo’s neck, James immediately putting a reverse head butt on him. The door was opening and Bravo still wasn’t down. Ignoring the pain in my leg, I spun around, my heart beating like a wild horse cantering across the sand as I saw the tip of a gun edging through the gap.

  ‘Mummy,’ Oliver yelled.

  ‘Close your eyes, right now,’ I screamed without even looking at him. I did as James had told me, thankful that the door was too heavy for someone to kick open and have it ricochet off the wall, I waited until I could see two hands and wrists. Using every last ounce of strength in me, I threw myself at the hard metal, slamming it against whoever’s hands it was, trapping them. I heard them roar with pain or frustration and they dropped the gun. I winced as they bashed against the door from the other side, smacking my shoulder and knocking me to the ground.

  ‘The gun, Ellie, grab the gun,’ James bellowed. I rolled over and snatched it off the floor, crying out in pain as the door was forced again and smacked me in my stomach. I wanted to double up and cry. I could hear Oliver sobbing in the corner, but if I gave in now, who knows who they’d take it out on. I lifted the gun, my hands shaking so badly, trying my best to aim it at the set of legs that had just appeared in my visual as I lay on the floor. I fired and cursed as I heard the sound of metal bounce on the floor. I’d missed.

  ‘No,’ I cried as the gun was kicked out of my hand. I couldn’t help it, I was so scared I closed my eyes and curled up into a ball, waiting for the worst. At the same time as I heard the sound of bones crunching, I felt a thud and jerked as something heavy landed on my legs.

  ‘Ellie, are you ok?’ came James’s voice. ‘They’re both down. Talk to me, we might not have much time.’

  ‘I’m … fine,’ I replied with a shaky voice. I opened my eyes and realised I had a body partially lying on me. I shoved him off and he rolled onto his back. I slammed my palm over my mouth to stifle my scream as I saw lifeless eyes starting up at the ceiling, blood oozing from where a knife was lodged in his throat. I quickly loo
ked down at his chest to see the letter “D” on it. James offered me his hand and pulled me up. ‘Is he really dead?’ I whispered.

  ‘Yes, good job my knife-throwing skills are accurate.’

  ‘What about Bravo?’

  ‘I snapped his neck. We need to gather what we can and move,’ he ordered, bending down to strip Delta of his weapons. I was nearly sick when I saw so much of Delta’s blood on my jeans.

  ‘O my God, I thought you were just going to tranq them, not kill them, James.’ I reached for the wall to support myself as I went dizzy and my body started to tremble.

  ‘You’d never have gone along with it if I’d told you the truth. It was them or us,’ James replied, turning to strip the jumper off Bravo, who was slumped in the corner. ‘Gather the food and water, I’ll fashion a bag out of this to carry it all in.’

  ‘Mummy,’ cried Oliver, his little voice full of anguish.

  ‘Mummy’s just fine, darling, keep your eyes closed for a little while and I’ll come and get you, then you’re going home, ok?’

  ‘To … see … daddy?’ he sobbed.

  ‘Yes, darling,’ I called as I skirted Delta’s dead body and snatched up the three small bottles of water, sandwiches, and bananas that Bravo had brought down for us. ‘Jonas and Eva are going to be so excited to see you.’

  ‘I miss Jo-Jo,’ he moaned.

  ‘I miss him, too. I miss them all.’ On top of everything else, I was fretting about how Eva was coping without me, being weaned suddenly from my breast and having to drink formula from a bottle instead. I was finally starting to feel less engorged from the lack of nursing, and I was devastated that I'd been forced to end breastfeeding my baby so abruptly. I turned with my armful to find James holding out the jumper that he’d knotted, and I fed all of the items through the neck hole.

  ‘Right, I’ll carry Master Oliver. Let’s move out.’

  ‘I’m not coming,’ I replied, shaking my head.

  ‘What?’ he snapped.

  ‘I was never coming, James. Be realistic, I can barely walk with my leg like this. I’ll slow you both down. You stand a better chance just the two of you.’

  ‘I’m not leaving you behind, Ellie! We go together, or we don’t go at all.’

  ‘You don’t have a choice, James. If we stay, they’ll likely kill you or me for what we’ve done, possibly both of us. You take Oliver and you go. If they don’t catch you, I’ll be perfectly safe as they have no one to bargain with if they kill me. Please, the others could come looking any minute, take my son and go.’ Tears formed in my eyes, but I nodded firmly at him.

  ‘Ellie,’ James sighed. The look on his face told me that he knew it was his only option, he was just trying to be gallant by offering to stay.

  ‘If it was one of your children and you were in my position, you’d do the same, I know it. You were prepared to sacrifice yourself for us, and we’re not even blood. I’ll never be able to thank you enough for that. Do this for me, for my son, please. Whatever happens to me I can bear it, because I’ll know my baby is safe with you.’

  ‘I don’t like this,’ he nodded, ‘I don’t like this at all.’ He blew out a hard, fast breath and turned and strode towards Oliver.

  ‘Keep your eyes closed, Oliver, but there’s nothing to be scared of, it’s Uncle James.’ I watched as James slung the makeshift bag over his shoulder, then picked up Oliver, who quickly put his arms around James’s neck. I bit my top lip as tears streamed down my face. I knew there was a real possibility that I may never see him again. James carried him to me and I stepped forward and put my arms around both of them, nuzzling into Oliver’s neck, my heart breaking.

  ‘Mummy?’ he sniffed.

  ‘It’s me, darling. Now Uncle James is taking you home, then he’ll come back and get me. I need you to do whatever he tells you, ok? You imagine that Uncle James is Daddy and do as you’re told. Do you promise me?’

  ‘Yes,’ he whispered, sniffing back his tears.

  ‘You’re going to play a game first. You have to stay as quiet as a mouse, no matter what happens, until James gives you permission to talk again. Can you do that?’

  ‘A game?’ he repeated.

  ‘Yes, and if you can keep quiet and do whatever he tells you, there’ll be the biggest pepperoni pizza and a whole tub of Ben and Jerry’s as a reward. Does that sound like a fair deal?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Keep your eyes closed while Mummy kisses you goodbye.’ I wiped my face on my grubby sleeve and clasped his face, taking one last look at him, wishing I could see his lovely green eyes one last time. I peppered his face with kisses, my heart breaking as he started to giggle. I hadn’t heard that sound since Thursday morning as he and Jonas played on the floor in the lounge. ‘Take him, before I change my mind,’ I sobbed, kissing James on the cheek.

  ‘I will come back for you, you know,’ he nodded, tears welling up in his eyes.

  ‘Don’t make promises you know you can’t keep, James,’ I replied with a heavy heart. Odds were I wasn’t going to make it out of here. ‘I love you, Oliver.’

  ‘I love you too, Mummy,’ he nodded, making my chest rattle as I tried desperately to stem my tears.

  ‘The game starts now, no more talking,’ I warned him.

  ‘Be safe, and be smart, Ellie Davenport. It’s been an honour.’ James pressed something into my palm. I looked down to see what it was through my tears. It was one of the pocket knives that our captors used. I looked up to thank him and say one last goodbye, but he’d gone. I was all alone, with two dead bodies for company. My legs gave way and I grasped at the door frame to keep me up. Using the wall for support, I made it to the toilet, dropped the lid, and lowered myself onto it as I started to howl. I’d just handed over the only thing I had left of my family in the hope that it would keep him safe. It was like the last of my heart had just been hacked out. I just had to pray that James would get away undetected, that no matter what happened to me, Oliver would make it home.

  ‘Delta, talk to me! Sit rep, now!’ yelled a voice. I stopped crying in an instant and stiffened up as I trained my eyes on the open door. It sounded like Charlie. Given he killed Jenny without even batting an eyelid, I didn’t feel any safer knowing it was him and not Alfa about to discover what we’d done. I quickly slid the pocket knife between the gap of the toilet seat and porcelain, and cringed as I heard the plop as it hit the water. If I put it anywhere on me, they were likely to search me and find it. I just had to hope that they wouldn’t check the toilet. I kept my eyes on the door. I could hear someone talking quietly. He was probably letting Alfa know that there was a problem. I took my chance to ease myself up and hobble back over to my mattress. I slid down the wall and wrapped my arms tightly around myself, hoping they’d take their time. The longer it took them to come in, the longer before they discovered James and Oliver had gone. They needed a good head start.

  I started shaking as I waited. I was hungry and seriously dehydrated. The last ten minutes, and saying goodbye to Oliver, had sapped the last of my strength. I heard the noise of metal bouncing, again and again, getting closer and closer until something cylindrical rolled next to my mattress. As soon as I saw smoke coming from it, I hauled my jumper up over my nose and tried to hold my breath. A grey fog started filling the room until I could barely make out anything at all. I started spluttering, going dizzy from trying not to breathe it in. It stung my eyes and made them water even harder than the tears I was still shedding. I had to gasp for air, sucking in the smoke and choking. I was coughing so hard that I hadn’t even noticed I wasn’t alone anymore. I squinted up and made out a face encased in a mask.

  ‘What did you do, you stupid bitch?’ he yelled, as I felt his fist connect with my face. My head was flung backwards with the force of his punch, and cracked on the wall behind me. Everything started spinning as I choked and my vision blurred. I was grateful that I was about to black out. Being unconscious was far more preferable to whatever punishment they had in store for me.<
br />
  Damien Daniels

  I pressed my ear up against the locked bedroom door as I heard a door slam and boots on the wooden floorboards. Something was happening, something that had seriously pissed off Alfa, judging by his mutters and storming out of here a short while ago.

  ‘He’s an old guy carrying a kid. How far can he have gone?’

  ‘That “old guy” just killed two of our fucking mates, Charlie, unless you think the bloody woman did it?’

  ‘Fair point. On the bright side, our share of the profits just increased.’

  ‘Show some goddamn respect,’ Alfa roared. I heard a crack and the sound of Charlie hissing through his teeth. ‘They were soldiers, damn fine ones at that.’

  ‘So, what do you want me to do? Go and dig their graves while James makes his escape? Soldiers die in battle, Alfa, we know that all too well. We still have a mission to complete.’

  ‘Pass me the bloody map.’

  I held my breath as I heard footsteps coming towards my door. I was in the smaller of the two bedrooms, which had a set of bunk beds and a tiny window with bars on the outside. Those were presumably to keep pilferers out, not hostages in. The team had been in the larger one. There was a sideboard against the wall between our two doors where they had their maps and some of their weapons. I heard the rustle of paper and feet moving away again.

  ‘This is our location,’ Charlie stated.

  ‘Right. He’s ex-Marines too, so he’s going to follow the track as a pointer out of here, but keep a distance back, out of sight. If he hears the river, he’ll move to see if he can cross it, to throw us off tracking him.’

  ‘But he knows that we know that, too. What if he does the opposite of our training to try and out manoeuvre us?’ Charlie asked.

  ‘Then he’d probably wade along the edge of the water for a while, to make it look as if he’d crossed, then return to the track and follow it out of the woods.’