Dark Winter Series (Book 1): Dark Winter

by Fernfield, Rebecca

  "Not much further now," Fauzia placated as Jem asked for at least the fifth time how much further they had to go. They turned a corner and were led into a yard. To one side was a row of outbuildings and a snow-covered car. As they approached a low extension at the back of the building, it became obvious from the repairs that someone had forced it open.

  "Have they been robbed?" Anna asked.

  "Don't worry. It’s safe. See," she said pointing to the large padlock securing the door.

  "But someone did break in!"

  "They did," Jez said, "but you're safe here."

  "Did someone try to rob you?" Jem asked.

  "They did, but they've gone now."

  "Did you have to fight them off?"

  "Enough of the questions. Let's get inside, shall we?"

  Vicky still seemed on edge, and Anna's confidence that they were safe dropped a little more. Despite her misgivings she urged Jem to follow Fauzia up the stairs. Ten minutes later, with the doors locked, she sat beside Jem on Fauzia's large sofa sipping a hot chocolate, the chill finally leaving her bones. Vicky explained that they would have to wait in the apartment until morning.

  "Then what?" Anna asked.

  "Well, then we have to inform the authorities that you're safe and-"

  "Authorities!" Jem's voice carried the anxiety Anna felt and she slipped an arm around her sister’s shoulders.

  "Well, Social Services will need to know that you're no longer at risk, and the police can take you off their missing person's register."

  Jem fidgeted as the woman spoke, and only Anna's firm and warning grip stopped her from standing. "But we can't let the social know where we are!" she said. "They'll take me away."

  "Shh, Jem."

  "It's alright, Jem. The important thing is that you're safe."

  "But I was safe. Gregor was looking after me." Tears glistened in the glowing light.

  "It's alright," Anna soothed. "We're safe here."

  The three adults exchanged glances and Fauzia disappeared to collect warm blankets and pillows. With the blankets distributed, and the gas fire warming the room, Jez and Fauzia bid them goodnight. Left alone with Vicky, Anna began to relax. The fire emitted a warming glow, and although it wasn't as comforting as the one back at the house, she fell into sleep as her mind filled with thoughts of Callum.

  Light filtered through thick curtains as the noise of a door opening woke Anna. It took a few seconds before she gained her bearings and realised Jem was no longer in the room. Throwing her own blanket to the floor, she grabbed the one from Jem’s empty chair as though it would reveal her beneath, then quickly scanned the large room. The door opened with a quiet knock and Fauzia entered. Her hesitant smile quickly disappeared. "What's wrong?"

  "Jem! Where is she?"

  “She was in here,” Fauzia replied. "Let me check the bathroom."

  It took two minutes of searching before they realised Jem had gone. In the snow-covered yard, Jem’s boot prints showed the path she had taken away from the shop.

  "Where can she have gone in this weather?"

  "She's gone back to Gregor," Jez answered.

  "Why the hell would she do that?" Fauzia asked. "The man's a monster."

  Anna sighed. "He's been kind to her. She doesn't see him as a monster."

  "He's done a great job on her, that's why," Vicky stated. "Kind, caring, protective. He's made sure that she's warm and fed and protected. The world's gone to shit, but he saved her. Isn't that right, Anna?"

  Anna nodded. "He scared me, but he was looking after us too."

  "That's their modus operandi. He's grooming you."

  "I get that, but Jem doesn't. I've got to go back."

  "No!"

  "Yes! And I don't want you trying to 'save' us anymore.” Anna’s temper reared. “Jem ran back to him because of you!"

  "What? But I've only tried to help."

  "By telling her that you're going to let Social Services take her away from me?"

  "That's not what I said."

  Anna ignored Vicky's comment and began to move away back down the road. Jez grabbed her arm. "Hey! Get off!"

  "Steady on!” His voice was stern. “I'm going to help."

  "I've had enough help. I need to get my sister."

  "Just listen to me."

  “Please listen to him, Anna,” Fauzia urged.

  "Okay,” she said with resentment. “I'm listening."

  "Come back inside. It's too cold out here."

  Anna relented and moved back into the house, following Jez into the shop. An upended torch added to the light seeping in through the boarded windows and door. "You can't go back out there without being prepared." He gestured to the rails and shelves of clothing and adventure goods. "It's freezing and likely to get worse. If you're serious about saving your sister, then you need to make sure you've got the equipment to survive, at least for a few days."

  "What do you suggest?"

  "I'm going to kit you out with what you need for a few days and the ..." He glanced at the two women standing in the doorway. "Zee, will you take Vicky upstairs, please? I want to talk to Anna on her own." He waited until the women were safely in the apartment and out of earshot then continued. "Anna, this guy, Gregor, is seriously dangerous. From what you and Vicky have told me he's a stone-cold killer. My guess is that he's seen action, perhaps during the Balkan war. Shit like that can change a man. Now, I know you're reticent about Social Services finding out where you are-"

  "There's not a chance I'm letting PC Plod hand Jem over to them!"

  "Hey! No need for that. Vicky risked her life trying to help you."

  "Sorry, it's just ... Social Services ... Jem would be better off with Gregor."

  "I'm not so sure about that, but I understand your reasoning. I wouldn't want any of my kids having to deal with it, which is why I didn't want Vicky to hear what I'm going to tell you, and you have my word that I won't tell her."

  Anna listened with interest as Jez told her about the small farmhouse he owned, fifteen miles from town. He followed this information with some basic survival knowledge and several self-defence techniques. He then drew a map to the farmhouse and told her to 'hole-up' there until the bad weather passed. "I'll be out to check on you if I can make it, but you should be alright for a few days. There's a small store of food and it's not easy to find unless you're looking. You should be safe." He took another handful of protein bars from the counter and stuffed them into the last available space in the now weighty rucksack.

  "When you get to the house, hide the bag. You can retrieve it once you've got Jem." He took a thermal beanie from a hanger and then a thick coat from the rail and placed another in a second bag for Jem. "Leave now. I'll tell the girls you said goodbye."

  "Thank you!" Anna said as she settled the rucksack on her back.

  "Just remember ‘Keep it simple, stupid!’. Slipping a slim cannister into her pocket, he said, “This packs a punch. Just aim for the eyes.”

  "I will."

  “Good. I’ll see you both in a few days. Now go.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Jem’s boot prints were imprinted along the path in the layer of snow that had fallen since last night. Beneath the snow were the frozen tracks of yesterday’s walk to Jez’s apartment and they crunched beneath Anna’s feet. The temperature had fallen again, and the sky hung heavy and opaque. More snow was certain.

  She made her way down the street of shops and then out towards the edge of town. Once sure that she wasn’t being followed by Vicky, she slowed, slipped a gloved hand into her pocket, and pulled out the can Jez had placed there. Slim and black it was topped by a red button. Along the side was written ‘SABRE’ beneath it in smaller print ‘CS Tear Gas/Red Pepper Personal Defense Spray’. At the base of the can was written ‘Caution: Skin, Eye, and Respiratory Irritant’.

  “He doesn’t mess around,” Anna said aloud noticing the American spelling of ‘defense’. As far as she knew, pepper spray with actual peppe
r spray in it, wasn’t legal in England. “Thank you!” she whispered and placed the can back into her pocket.

  Encouraged that she now had some knowledge of self-defence, and the pepper spray to ward off Gregor if he tried to stop her taking Jem, she quickened her pace. Ahead a group of children had gathered in the road and a snowman, round and fat, sat in the middle. Cars sat idle along the kerb, hidden like huge and angular marshmallows beneath a thick covering of snow. At the end of the road, another sat at a skewed angle, a solid block of white blocking the way.

  About half way between Anna and the snow covered vehicle, a boy in black coat, jeans and a bright red beanie with a ‘Liverpool FC’ badge stitched to its band scooped a massive handful of snow from a car’s bonnet and began to form it into a ball. The missile launched, arced towards the children patting at the snowman’s fat belly, and landed on a girl’s back. She squealed, whined ‘Stop it, Tommy!’ then scooped up her own handful of snow, before launching it in retaliation. The air filled with squealing laughter and children’s shouts as a snowball war erupted. Laughing despite her own gnawing anxiety, Anna ran along the path past the children, only narrowly missing a snowball as it burst apart on the wall beside her head. A boy howled with laughter. “Little buggers!” she laughed, slowing as she moved beyond reach of their missiles. She wondered if they had pelted Jem too, or if her sister had snuck out as the light began to rise in the sky and the children were still in bed.

  “You really cocked up this time, Anna,” she berated herself as she turned another corner into another street. “What a bloody mess. Mum would kill you.” Thoughts of her mother intruded and the heavy weight of responsibility for Jem’s welfare began to press down on her as a physical pain across her shoulders. She shifted the rucksack, itself a heavy weight, but it didn’t alleviate the pain of leaden despair and self-loathing. “You’re a stupid cow!” she muttered and continued along the road, the guarded optimism she had experienced kitted out for survival and defence as she left Jez’s shop leaking away.

  Wallowing in her fug of misery, she took no notice of the men who had stepped out from a narrow alley between a row of back-to-back houses. She plodded along, unaware of their whispers and growing excitement at the heavy, well-filled backpack slung across her shoulders.

  Too late, she heard their voices. A hand grabbed for the rucksack’s straps. She jolted back, boots slipping against ice frozen hard beneath the snow. Shouting out in surprise her feet slipped from beneath her and she crashed to the ground. The man tugging at her backpack followed, falling with a heavy thud and deep grunt beside her. Another hand grabbed for the rucksack as the fallen man scrambled to his feet. With sudden clarity, she headbutted the man bending over her. Pain shot through her skull and the man staggered but continued tugging at the straps.

  “Get off!” she screamed. “Get off!” Memories of the girls in the park filled her senses, the sensation of helplessness swamping her. No! It would not end with her cowering on the ground this time. The bag was for her and Jem—their survival kit, and there was no way two scumbag thieves were going to take it from her. The can of pepper spray lay deep in her pocket and as the man continued to tug whilst the other regained his balance, she reached in, clasping gloved fingers around the cannister. The man above her grunted, his scowling face filling with rage as he failed to remove the bag from her body. He drew back, sitting on his haunches and eyed her for a second before raising his arm, fist clenched. Now! Do it now! As the knuckled fist swung downwards, Anna withdrew the spray and pressed. A fine mist spurted at high pressure from the cannister, covering one side of his face. The reaction was instant. His fist punched the air as his eyes closed tight shut. Spray had also caught the other man, and both staggered, screaming expletives whilst clutching at their eyes.

  “Biiiitch!”

  “Burning! My eyes are burning.”

  Anna scrambled to her feet, amazed at the men’s reaction to the spray. Blinded by the chemicals they blundered into each other, knocking heads, swearing, and shouting.

  “Aaagh!”

  “I’ll kill you, you bitch!” one screamed as he clasped a hand over his eyes.

  “Yeah!” she shouted back. “Come try it.” Anna’s anger, along with the anxiety and fear that she had suffered over the past days, rose in a whirling vortex of rage. “Just try it you bastards!” she screamed. “Just try it.” She held the cannister at the face of the larger man, the need to hurt him strong. Heart beating with rapid and painful beats she took a tentative step towards him, flinched as he staggered forward, then tried out one of the self-defence moves Jez had taught her. Moving to the side of the large man, she kicked at the back of his knee with as much force as she could muster. His leg gave way in an instant and, to her surprise, he fell to the ground. Yes! “Kill me would you, you pig! You just try!” With a final flourish, she landed a heavy boot in his stomach. He grunted in pain.

  A door opened and a large woman dressed in leggings, slippers and clutching closed an oversized fluffy dressing gown over her clothes, stepped out. “What’s going on?” she shouted.

  Startled back to reality, Anna stared at the woman for a moment, then turned to run.

  “Hey!” the large woman shouted stepping out into the road. “Someone get the police.”

  As Anna turned the corner, hitting the main road out of town, a small crowd had gathered to help the blinded men.

  Thirty minutes later, adrenaline still pumped through Anna’s veins, and she strode along the wide road, watchful for any movement. She scanned the area ahead and streets at her side, crossing the road to keep a distance between herself and anyone who appeared. Snow began to fall, covering the stationary cars with yet more layers, and the street was unnaturally quiet. Without the angry throb of car engines and lorries, the space was almost silent, and only a few people had ventured onto the freezing street. A main thoroughfare through the town, running parallel to the beach but separated by a wide expanse of terraced houses running at ninety-degree angles to the shoreline, it had once been a bustling high street. Now, it reflected the town’s poverty and the move away from local shops to purpose-built retail parks. Along the road, shabby shopfronts were masked over by metal shutters or grilles of galvanised steel. Some had smashed windows where vandals had managed to dent the grille and broken the glass. Others were papered from the inside with newspapers to block the interior. Some had been blocked with breezeblocks or wooden sheets and now stood decaying and windowless. Above them curtains hung limp and grimy. In some, torchlight shone, or candlelight flickered, but most were dark, hiding the people inside. At one, a woman peered out onto the road, watching Anna as she passed down the street.

  Ten minutes further on, and she approached the junction. The dual carriageway to the left would take her back to the town centre, to the right to the docks. The low canopy of a petrol station sat before the low roof of a squat building filled with motorcycles. A man dressed to face the weather in woolly hat, thickly padded jacket, and heavy boots unlocked the shop door and disappeared inside. On his back he carried what looked like a rifle case. Ahead the traffic lights were dead and there was no evidence that a car had passed through them since the electricity had failed. The more Anna considered the events of the last days, the more she began to believe that Callum’s hypothesis that an electro-magnetic pulse detonated by an enemy state had taken out the national grid was right.

  No more than one hundred feet further down the road, a crowd had gathered. She crossed to the motorcycle shop, noticing the man with the rifle now standing looking out at the road, his fists gripping the strap of the case hung over his shoulder. His body language was of a man on alert, and he eyed Anna with suspicion as she stood outside the shop. Behind him were rows of motorcycles, and as Anna stepped away to make her way towards the dead traffic lights, she realised he was protecting his stock.

  The crowd of at least twenty people were gathered outside a supermarket, the only shop on the road that sold food. Emblazoned above the doors w
as ‘Tesco Express’.

  The air reverberated with the sound of fists hammering on glass and the crowd drew back, clearing a space in front of the shop doors as a man, crowbar in hand, smashed it against the glass. It cracked but didn’t break and the crowd began to chant, ‘Smash it! Smash it!’ as Anna hurried past. Nervous in case the hoard spotted her and tried to take her bag, she strode past, keeping her chin up and shoulders back, doing her best to appear confident and calm as Jez had instructed. The glass broke and the crowd cheered then thinned as people made their way inside the supermarket. Anna’s stomach grumbled and she considered joining the looters to raid the shop before discarding the idea and marching to the lane that would take her to the house and Jem.

  With a cold wind beginning to bite and the first flakes of snow spattering like pinpricks against her cheeks, she pulled her hat low and trudged under the weight of the rucksack. The sky darkened as she reached the lane where the house stood isolated and surrounded by iron gates and thick hawthorn.

  As she drew close, she spotted a gnarled tree, a horse chestnut with a large hollow to one side. She deposited the ‘bug out’ bag, and the one packed with a jacket and gloves for Jem, in the hollow, covered them over with snow, and turned her attention to the house. Her stomach knotted at the thought of facing Gregor. What if he wouldn’t let Jem leave? What if Jem refused to leave? What if her resolve to escape disappeared once she saw Callum?

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  Anna’s hand trembled as she lifted it to knock at the door. She waited, listening to the voices inside. A face appeared at a downstairs window, and she offered a weak smile and a wave in response to Jake’s deep frown. His face became stony and the lump at the bottom of her belly became heavier. She took a breath to calm herself, gave a brighter smile, then gestured for him to open the door. He disappeared. Tense minutes passed until finally the front door opened to a narrow split.