The Reaper Series (Book 3) Reapers Mist

by Justin Gowland

  Walking out of the castle and toward the café I saw that Chris and the girls had finished weeding and putting up the small fence round the garden. I walked into the gift shop and saw Chris playing on the Xbox with determination. I sat down beside him on the couch and watched as he killed wave after wave of undead on the TV screen.

  “You look like you’ve played this before.” I said.

  “Dad got me a copy of this for the Xbox 360 but for some reason it plays a hell of a lot better on the Xbox One. Do you want to join in we can play Co-Op?” He said.

  “Sorry Chris I have things to do I just wanted to see if you were ok after the other night.” I answered standing up.

  “I’m ok it was just a big misunderstanding but Toni and I have manage to sort it all out so no problem.”

  I put my hand on his shoulder and said “That’s great news because as long as both of you are ok then that’s all that matters. Just remember you and the girls are the only young people in this group and you need to get a long and support each other.”

  “I will Jay. Can I ask why the pep talk?”

  “Nothing just wanted you youngsters to know how important you are.” I said walking into the kitchen.

  Maddie was lifting a large tray with what looked like baked potatoes on to the bench. She saw me and threw a small wave and went back into the kitchen seconds late Christine came out with another small tray with something in it but I couldn’t tell what it was. I heard a door bang and Derek came down the stairs carrying some network cable. He stopped when he saw me and went bright red.

  “What’s up Derek?” I asked smiling.

  “I… erm…..I needed to get the cable from the office I was wanting to run a web camera from near the gate to a pc so we would be able to see anyone who came knocking.” He said getting even redder.

  “Ok.” I said and walked past him.

  “What? I thought you might have kicked off about me being in your brother’s room.” He said.

  “Derek, you needed to get the cables so I have no problem with you getting them from out of Marc’s room. How is it going anyway?”

  “Should have them up and running by tonight don’t expect anything special it’s just a few web cams from the computers upstairs. I mean you should be able to tell what they are up close but anything further than say twenty meters and you’re not going to be able to tell what they are.”

  “Look any security is better than no security can you do me a favor and make sure your two girls are close by will you.” I asked.

  “Why? Is there something wrong?” Derek asked nearly dropping the cables.

  “Don’t worry there’s nothing wrong. I am just being a little security minded today that’s all.”

  “I suppose you would after the last few……oh shit Jay I didn’t mean anything.” He said flushing red again. (Bloody hell you could use his face as a stop sign the way it goes red so quick.)

  “Derek I am not upset mate just please go and get the security camera stuff sorted and thanks for doing it.” I said.

  Chapter Eighteen

  He rushed out of the café like his arse was on fire and I just shook my head and went to the kitchen looking for Maddie. Sticking my head inside the door I saw Maddie and Christine up to their elbows in work. Maddie was busy washing dishes and Christine was making some pastry.

  “Christine any chance I could steal Maddie away for a few minutes?”

  “Yeah, I can spare her but she needs to come back soon I’ll need help putting the tops on the vegetable pies. For some reason I can never do that by myself.” She said.

  Maddie picked up a tea towel and dried her hands as she walked out of the kitchen with a puzzled look on her face.

  “Ok what’s happened now?” She asked coming into the café. (I swear to god I heard Christine laugh in the kitchen.)

  “Nothing has happened yet.” I said with a smile on my face.

  “No!” She said.

  “What I haven’t even asked anything yet!” I said holding my hands up.

  “I know that smile and I don’t have time Jay. Christine found some tinned vegetables and we had enough stuff to make some pastry so we thought we’d make vegetable pies for evening meal. According to Christine because we are using tinned vegetables we have to cook them for longer because they have a lot of water in them. So no!”

  “Alright but remember you were the one that said no.”

  “Yeah it’s not like we haven’t had similar discussions before about this subject. So can get back to work now then?” She asked.

  Smiling I pulled in to a big hug and said “Yes you can go back to work but first you must do the one thing every woman must do once in a while for their man.” I said.

  “I am not giving you a blow job so stop asking for one and I am not giving you one here in the café.” She said. (This was accompanied by another burst of laughter from inside the kitchen.)

  “I wasn’t going to ask for that but now that you mention it…..Ow.” She hit me with the tea towel and I laughed and said “No I just wanted you to say that you love me.” I said.

  Her eyes went wide and I could see the beginnings of tears along the rims.

  “Of course I love you. What makes you think that I don’t?” She asked.

  “Nothing I just wanted to hear it from you that’s all.”

  “Jay what’s going on I know you well enough by now to know when something is up so come on spill it.”

  “Like I said I just wanted to hear you tell me that you loved me. With everything that has happened over the last few days I just needed to know that.” I said.

  “Ok, I love you. Now if you’re finished being a soppy sod I’ll get back to making food.” And with a funny look on her face she headed back to the kitchen.

  Smiling to myself I headed upstairs to the apartment I had my hand on the door handle when I had the sudden feeling to go have a look in Marc and Becky’s old room. Opening the door I saw clothes spread all over the floor and their rucksacks lying on their sides. I stood at the doorway smiling Marc had never been a tidy person and it looked like Becky hadn’t been one either. It looked like they had found the perfect person to be with. I closed the door and went next door to the apartment. Picking up my webbing and rifle I headed out to the pistol range and for the next few hours practiced quick draws of both my rifle and pistol.

  Maddie brought me some soup in a flask for my lunch and I sat on the castle steps eating it and watching the seagulls wheeling about in the sky above the castle.

  Just after lunchtime Rees and Jacob arrived back and I said I could wait till evening meal before hearing what the fallback island was like. They both shrugged and said that they would go and get some food.

  What I really wanted to do was put off telling them about the vision. The reason being I wanted fewer arguments about the plan I wanted to use. For once I did have a fully formed plan and I wanted everyone to do their part and understand why. Rees came back and sat watching me practice my pistol shots after a short while he said “Loosen your grip it’s too tight that’s why you’re going high right.”

  “Thanks mate couldn’t figure out why it was doing that.” I replied.

  I fired off a couple of shots with the looser grip and hit center mass with both shots.

  “Yeah that’s better.” I said.

  “Ok now that we have sorted out your shit shooting you can tell me what’s going on. Even Maddie is a little worried about you and she asked me to come and talk with you.”

  I laughed and said “I really do need to get better at this cloak and dagger shit. Rees mate we have been friends for just over half my life and we have been through a lot of shit together. I have never been one to hold back on anything that might fuck up that friendship but I really need to talk about this when everyone is together for evening meal.”

  “They’re coming aren’t they?” He asked.

  I just nodded.

  “Shit! When?”

  “Don't know probably tomor
row morning or sometime after that during the day.” I replied.

  “Any idea how many we might have to fight?”

  “It looked like between forty and fifty it doesn’t seem many but they are their best warriors at least that’s what the vision pointed out.” I said.

  “Ok so what are we going to do?” Rees said running his hand through his hair.

  “I have a plan but I wanted to wait till dinner before telling everyone. There is going to be a lot of complaints about it and I really do need them to listen so a little bit of support would be cool.” I said.

  “Of course I’ll support your plan.”

  “Thanks mate.”

  Rees stood next to me on the firing line and started getting some practice in with his pistol. We stood taking turns for the next hour or so. Tapping him on his shoulder I told him I needed to go check something out and would meet him in the café for dinner. I walked into the castle and went down to the storeroom we were using as the armory I wanted to grab some rounds to refill my magazines. Out the corner of my eye I saw a one of the duffle bags that Rees had pulled out of the Territorial Army unit. Opening it a smile spread over my face and now I had something else to add to the plan closing the bag I moved it close to the door. I could tell by the light coming in through the window in the kitchen that the sun was starting to set. Making my way to the top of the wall and looked out over village toward the mainland. This perch of mine was coming in handy when I needed to think I was going to miss having it.

  Turning round to look down into the courtyard I could see Mary and Rees holding hands as they walked over to the café. The music coming from the gift shop told me that the girls were on one of the dance games again. I had a warm feeling inside and felt better at that moment than I had in the last few days. The group that was inside this castle had become as close to family as my real family had ever done. The thought of what had to be done next frightened me so much that it almost made me back down from it. I saw Maddie come out from the gift shop and look round the walls till she saw me and waved it must be dinner time. Waving back I left my perch and headed down to dinner.

  I was right the girls were playing some kind of dancing game on the Xbox.

  “Come on you two time for food you can play that thing later.” I said getting the usual complaints back. (You know the ones all teenagers give ‘Aww five more mins’ ‘I am almost finished this level’ ‘You’re a butt head’ things like that.)

  Taking a seat nearest to the door I watched as everyone settled down and Christine started to bring out the food trays with Maddie’s help. Tonight’s fantastic meal was vegetable pie with gravy and mash potatoes from a packet. Maddie made drinks for herself and I then came to sit next to me whilst we ate. Everyone was having quiet chats whilst we ate our food Chris had sat next to the girls and was laughing at something Toni said. I swear to god not more than a few days ago they were at each other’s throat and now they were sat like brother and sister. Food was soon finished and plates were pushed away and people started to get ready to stand and move away.

  “Err... Guys could you please wait before you go anywhere I need to talk to you all but I also think we should listen to what Rees and Jacob found out about the fall back position.” I said.

  Rees cleared his throat and said “As most of you know Jacob and I went to have a look at the other island. It’s a good fallback place and we checked the whole island for Reapers and there were none. You can only get there by boat and that’s probably why. There are four buildings on the island there is a lighthouse and a cottage that goes with it, a large keep/castle type building and a large hut shaped building that teaches people on the birds that live on the island. The buildings are powered by generators and solar power so it’s not going to be a problem having heat and power. There is enough room for everyone and there is enough land for animals and for crops if needed. So in all the island will be as good as what we have here and it is secure.”

  Everyone started talking about how it sounded like it would be a better place to live than where we were now. I agreed that the other island did sound better than our castle but there was one thing that the others weren’t taking into consideration and that was the Reapers. The last vision had shown me exactly who the Reapers were after and I wasn’t about to place the rest of the group in danger because they were after me. Just because we were in the middle of the sea didn’t mean that they wouldn’t be there waiting for me every time we had to go to the mainland for supplies. Time to get it over and done with I suppose.

  “There is something else we need to talk about guys and I needed everyone to be quiet till I finish telling you all.” I said.

  Everyone looked puzzled.

  “You all know to one extent that I have been having visions since I got injured back at the cottage. Well the last one told me more than I really wanted to know the Reapers have been trying to find me and they have. Now in the last vision it showed me that they were on the coast and were watching Holy Island and they were about fifty strong. I spoke to Rees earlier and I have a feeling that they are going to try an attack tomorrow morning when the causeway is clear.

  “What I would like us to do is to try and get as much gear on to the boat tonight as possible and for Jacob and a few others to take it to the other island tonight. Then for Jacob to come back and we load the boat up again with the rest of the supplies. Rees and I will start to prepare the castle for the fight and do a recon to make sure they aren’t here yet.” I said.

  “Why don’t we just load up and go to the island now?” Derek asked.

  “I knew this question was going to come up. We are going to try and get most of the gear and everyone to the island tonight but I won’t be going with you…” Everyone started shouting and Maddie’s face just went white.

  “LOOK CHILL OUT.” I shouted

  The room calmed down and I could speak again “Right there are two very good reasons for me not going and you have to let me say them before you all kick off again. The Reapers are coming for me and we all know it’s because I can tune into the Queen. Now if I go with you to the island they will keep trying to get me by either waiting for us or setting up ambushes every time we go ashore for supplies and there is the probability of them trying to find a way to get on the island. Here is the other reason for me staying; if I can kill the Queen then there is the possibility that I might be able to cut the connection between us. If that happens then I will be able to join you on the island and we can all live happy ever after if not well I would rather not think about the if not part.”

  The room was silent and I sat there watching everyone’s faces looking for anything that might tell me what they thought. Maddie’s face I think said it all she was scared and angry but I think she could also see where I was coming from.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Derek was the first to speak and I probably knew what he was going to say “Jay you have protected everyone here since we got here. I would say that if there was a way we could all go to the island and for the Reapers not being able to follow I would have said let’s all go now. But like you said they would wait for us every time we went ashore and every time we did we could lose people. I have my family to consider and I don’t want to lose any of them so sorry to say but what you are planning makes the most sense for the group to survive.”

  “But Derek he has protected you and yours since we met and you have never had to put one foot outside these walls. How can you say you don’t want him to come with us?” Maddie said.

  “I am not saying I didn’t want him to come with us it’s just that if he does at the moment then every time someone leaves the island that person is putting themselves at risk. Also what happens if that person or group goes ashore and gets wiped out we won’t have a boat or any form of escape from the island.” Derek said.

  That made sense now so why didn’t I think of that myself.

  “I am sorry to say it Maddie but I think Derek is right.” Rees said.

 
That little sentence seemed to rock Maddie back in her chair. She put her hand to her mouth and said “Of all the people in this room apart from me Rees I would have thought you might have wanted to keep Jay safe.”

  “Maddie look Walker is like a brother to me and I would walk through hell to save him if and I mean IF there was a remote chance that everyone in this group would survive. Walker and I had a chat earlier today and I said that I would support his plan and I am even though I can see some bloody big holes in it.” Rees replied.

  “He might die.” She said

  “Look yes I might die but I have to do this or all the people in this room are going to be fighting and dying for the rest of what would be very short lives. That would include you and me and as far as I am concerned that is not going to happen. So I would like you all to go and pack what gear you have and are taking and please put it near the main gate to be taken out to the boat. If possible I want all the food taking out of here tonight plus could you take as much fuel as you can as well. I would like the ladies to take the first boat with the kids and the gents to take the second boat if we have time during the night. If not you’ll have to go in the morning. Rees and I will start setting up the defenses against the Reapers once the women and kids have gone. Ok everyone let’s get on with it.” I said standing and walking out of the café before anyone could say anything else. As usual found myself on the way to my perch on top of the wall.

  I watched as most of the group started to head to the castle to move their belongings and I saw Mary and Christine head into the kitchen of the café. Maddie came running out to find me. Seeing me on the wall she ran up the steps and nearly knocked me over when she barreled into me. I could hear her sobs as she buried her face into my shirt.

  Leaning back I placed my hand under her chin and gently lifted her face so that she was looking at me. Her eyes were all puffy and red and she had tears streaming down her cheeks and the boogers oh those lovely runny boogers were flowing from her nose. I leaned forward and kissed her forehead (What! You didn’t think I was going to kiss her mouth and booger juice did you. For shame on you all for thinking that.) and said “Babe if there was any other way to do this I would be the first person on that boat but there isn’t and so here I am.”