Edenfield Mill was built in the early nineteen hundreds, I was hoping it still had the open sewerage system underneath the building, connected to the road sewerage, it would be our only way of getting in undetected. We backtracked to the nearest manhole, and one by one, descended into the sewer. Turning my torch light on, we peered into the darkness, the tunnel took us directly within the walls of the property. As we walked, we were no further than halfway when a vehicle travelled over the top of us, carrying a new set of victims. In the tunnel we were hindered by two sets of metal railings, but with a bit of pressure, their rusting hinges gave way, each holding back a torrent of shit and rubbish. I climbed up the ladder and pushed the manhole to the side, the ground was covered with five inches of undisturbed ash and dust. With Steve’s binoculars, I surveyed the area, we were twenty yards from the back of the largest building, which was guarded by three patrols. I spotted the back door to the building we needed to enter, it was around forty yards from our position. We spent twenty minutes observing the guards patrol patterns, waiting for the perfect moment to attempt the rescue. The only footprints in the ash were the guards, so we could see exactly where they went, and for how long. Roy suggested one of us runs back through the tunnel and stops directly under the road where the women are being inspected, from there they could hear exactly when a new batch arrived, it would be a good time to attack while they were preoccupied. Steve wanted the job and headed back through the shit smelling tunnel. We had no idea if Nancy was in this building or not, or if she was even alive. We had to hope, without hope we had nothing. While we stood in the tunnel waiting for the go-ahead, we discussed how to approach the rescue, it took over an hour for another truck to arrive, Steve came sprinting back through the darkness, shouting for us to go. I climbed up the ladder and moved the manhole again, I had studied the guards patterns and within five minutes the moment arrived, we all climbed out and ran into our pre-planned positions, Steve and Simon covered the sides as Roy and myself went for the door. It took three bullets from my silenced pistol to open the padlock, as the red wooden door creaked open, nothing could have prepared us for the horror my torchlight uncovered. The mournful faces of hundreds of women that hell had swallowed up, some naked, some clothed, all confused and petrified. The smell of death and suffering was overwhelming, all I could hear were cries of despair, ‘Help me.’
‘Please, please help us.’
‘Oh shit’ I thought, ‘What have we done?’
Within seconds we were overrun by women running for the door, it was a situation we no longer controlled. The open door sucked everyone towards us, I couldn’t focus on anything, women were climbing over each other to get out, it all became a bit of a blur. After a few minutes of mayhem, one of the guards walked back into view. He was fifteen yards away looking directly at me, between us was hundreds of women, he raised his hand, as though to say don’t shoot. ‘Back! Get back to the tunnel’ I shout, ‘Move, move, move.’ I wasn’t about to fire, I had no shot without hitting the women, so I turned and ran. In the confusion that followed, I’m not entirely sure what happened. All I can say is what I saw and what I’ve been told since, I lost sight of all the members of my group and headed back to the manhole. It was bedlam, search lights were lighting up bodies all around. Some women were running blindly in any direction, some crawling on all fours. I’d like to say I tried in vain to find a face that resembled Nancy, but I didn’t, it was futile. The scene resembled something John Milton might have described in ‘Lost Paradise.’ It was hard to tell if the women were trying to escape or if they had any idea what was happening, I observed some just standing around, others just walked back into the building they’d been captive in. When I got to the manhole, Steve was already at the bottom. The rescue had gone as badly wrong as it possibly could, and we had no idea where Roy or Simon where. Steve wasn’t about to leave his brother, but we were in terrible danger, we hung around for around five minutes, guns trained on the manhole. Suddenly there were feet moving around the edge, dust came tumbling down, our guns lifted towards it, but it was Simon and Roy, and remarkably they had found Nancy. She was naked to the waist, exposing her pregnant belly to the cold and seemed confused and scared. It wasn’t clear if she knew who we were or what was happening, but there was no time for questions, Roy put his coat over her shoulders and we left. The journey back was just as gruelling, I don’t remember much about it, I just focused on one tired, muddy step at a time. We arrived at the b&b around four a.m. and went to bed exhausted.
3/11/2027 - Time 22:13
After waking up after two p.m. today, the first thing I did was write up last nights events before having a look through Lee’s stuff in his room, I was hoping it would give us a better understanding of what happened, and why. His room was across the corridor, so I made my way along the landing, the floorboards creaking with every footstep. The house was quiet, nobody else was up, I walked into his room and sat on his neatly made bed. On his bedside table was a pile of his belongings, which I found odd, why would he leave anything if he knew what was about to go down? There was a note, which I expected to be for us, apologising for what happened, but it wasn’t. It was a letter from his wife Amanda, dated November the twenty sixth, two thousand and fifteen. It was a love letter written early in their courtship, attached by a paper clip was an old digital photograph of her, on the back was scrolled in handwriting: ‘My dearest Lee, missing you already. These six months have felt like six years, see you soon. All my love, Amanda XX XX.’ Next to the letter was a walkie talkie, which I picked up and turned on. A red number seven lit up on the front, and I pressed the talk button, but didn’t speak. There was silence over the airwaves, it worried me that Lee was using a walkie talkie, their range is only a few miles, ten at most, how safe are we here? If the gang who attacked us knows about this place, we could be in serious danger. The food and water, its location, all things that will be craved by other people. Behind me I heard the sound of a door opening and Roy came storming into the room.
‘Is this his stuff?’ He shouted, taking the note off me and screwing it up. He gathered the belongings up in his arms and walked towards the door.
‘What are you doing with it?’
‘I’m gonna burn it.’
‘Just wait on a bit Roy, there could be something important here.’
‘Like what?’
‘Well we need to know more about who he was dealing with, and why he did what he did. Is this place compromised? We could be in danger if we stay here, we need to know.’
‘He did what he did because he was a scumbag.’
‘I’m not sure it’s as straight forward as that Roy, I think he was forced into it.’
‘Whatever’ he snarled, throwing Lee’s stuff onto the bed and walking out of the room.‘You deal with it then, I want it out of here by tonight or I will remove it.’ Still sat on the bed, I opened Lee’s wallet, to see if I could find anything of interest. There were credit cards, money, but nothing of value, a torn piece of paper with ‘7 23:00’ written in black biro. Nothing else seemed to be of any relevance, I carried Lee’s stuff to my room and put them in the top draw of my dressing table. When I got downstairs Roy was going through the kitchen cupboards.
‘I’m going to have to go on a supplies run, Nancy is going to give birth here and we are woefully unprepared.’
‘How is she? Has she spoken about what happened?’
‘She’s sleeping at the moment, I don’t want to wake her, I haven’t spoken to her about it yet, she was exhausted.’
‘You stay with Nancy, I will take Steve or Simon to get the supplies,
I know where the chemist is, Lee took me. It’s a couple of hours walk, what do you need?’
‘I don’t really know, some painkillers and something to sterilise the equipment, a pair of scissors, plastic sheets and gloves. That kind of thing.’
‘Okay, I already have some plastic sheets and scissors, also some painkillers, but I will look for something stronger. You ar
e going to have to tie the umbilical cord with something, I will see what I can find. When is the baby due?’
‘Any time now.’
Roy looked like a worried man, and not surprising, I remember the strain on me and Jane before Emma was born, and that was without the problems they are facing. I had a conversation with the brothers and it was agreed Steve would accompany me on the journey, Simon would restock the fire wood and help around the house. The conditions outside were dreadful, we waited until the torrential rain had past over before setting off. It was still bitterly cold, so we wrapped up for the end of the world. We walked for miles towards the town, along the open fields still keeping the road in view to guide us. As we entered the city the conditions worsened, the buildings creating a kind of wind tunnel, blowing three months of ash into our faces. We walked between the abandoned vehicles until the road peaked, and we started a long decline into the town centre. Steve suddenly stopped and pointed ahead. Stood in the road three hundred yards away were two figures, facing us leaning against a car.
‘What should we do Nate?’
‘Well they’ve seen us, I think we should just keep walking, get your rifle out, keep it visible.’
Slowly we made our way towards the figures until we were near enough to speak, they were both dirty looking men with unkempt beards, and long trench coats, with plastic rain covers over their heads. ‘Where are you fellas heading?’
‘Just passing through.’
‘Where are you from?’
‘We ain’t from anywhere, just passing through on the way to the coast.’
‘The coast, this is a strange ass way of getting to the coast.’
‘We’re gathering supplies first.’
‘Ah supplies, who have you got in your party, where are they?’
‘Just us.’
‘I’m not sure I believe that, you know if you are hungry we can help you out, we’re helpful guys.’
‘We’re fine thanks, just going to continue on our way.’
‘Now hold on a minute, we haven’t been rude to you have we? We are just having a discussion about how we could help each other, there’s no need to be rude to us.’
‘Not being rude, we just don’t need your help, we are just gonna walk right by you and you ain’t gonna do anything.’
‘I see you have a gun, but I’m betting, you ain’t ever fired that gun and killed a man, and you ain’t about to start now.’ The man was looking at Steve, who responded ‘I swear if you make a fucking move I don’t like, I’m gonna put a bullet between your eyes. If you want, you can try your luck, but it will be the last mistake you make.’
‘Hey, hey let’s calm down here, we are only trying to help you out, tell you how it is. There ain’t no need for all that animosity, it’s just you look well fed and all, I would be worried if I was you about your place, in case someone finds it.’
‘Know one is gonna find it because there ain’t nothing to find’ I said.
‘Okay, okay mister have it your way, we’ll be seeing you around.’ We walked past them up the hill only glancing back as we reached the top, where the road arched away to the right, the two men were still standing by the car. We hid behind some bushes by the roadside to check if they’d follow us, but they didn’t. After a short wait we checked again, but they had gone, so we continued along the ash caked road to the chemist. When we got there, we carefully walked between the broken bottles and discarded packets that littered the floor, with very little left on the shelves. I was acutely aware of the danger we could be ambushed, so I tried to be as quick as possible, while keeping an eye on the door. We picked up some baby bottle sterilizing solution and a pair of rubber gloves, the strongest medicine I could find was codeine. We struggled to find anything to tie the umbilical cord, in the end leaving empty handed, hoping to adapt something at the b&b. On the journey back, the darkness started to descend. We found a collapsed building by the side of the road and decided to use it to hide out in, and make sure we had no company. We sat for around an hour discussing our own situations and plans, as the bitter cold set in. The old red brick walls offered some protection from the conditions, which we were thankful for. I told Steve of my plan to head back home to my farm in hope my parents had survived, I kept to my story, explaining my wife and child had been killed in a car crash three years previous. I trust Steve about as much as I trust anyone right now, but it’s still not enough to tell him about my daughter. I cannot tell anyone until I have a better understanding of what’s happening, why women were being taken, and what any creature would want with them. Steve told me his brother was concerned about his wife, who they had left back in Cumbria, I tried to reassure him, but in reality he knows as I do, we’ve no idea about anyone’s chances. We agreed it wasn’t the right time to leave and we would help Roy and Nancy with the birth before moving on, the brothers were as anxious to move as I, with both of us having a dangerous journey ahead. We discussed Nancy, agreeing she had not seemed herself after the rescue and had been hidden away since. Roy had been quick to avoid any contact with the group which worried us, had his love for her clouded his judgement? We needed to get some time with her to judge for ourselves. Interestingly, Steve had somewhat changed his opinion of Lee, at the time he was ready to kill him, he now appreciated the situation he had found himself in. I have a lot of time for Steve, he seems like an honest, loyal individual, the kind of man that will become harder to find in the future I fear. When we were happy we hadn’t been followed, we set off back to the b&b at a quick pace, arriving shortly before eleven p.m. When we got there the building looked deserted, Simon was the only one up, Nancy hadn’t made an appearance all day, which concerned us all. I put the supplies on the kitchen table, said my good nights and headed upstairs, I stood outside Roy’s door, listening for any movement, but there was nothing. When I entered my room, I opened the draw containing Lee’s stuff, and looked over it again. I was drawn to the note with ‘7 23:00’ written on it, I stared at it trying to figure out what it related too. Had I seen these numbers before? I don’t remember doing, the walkie talkie’s channel was defaulted to number seven, could that have something to do with it? I looked at my watch, it was seven minutes past eleven, 23:00 has to be a time. So I picked up the walkie talkie and turned it on. The red number seven lit up again, I lifted the mic to my mouth and spoke. ‘Hello, hello is anybody there?’
There was a long silence, before a voice appeared on the other end. ‘Who is speaking?’
In a split second decision, I responded ‘Lee, who do you think?’ The silence on the other end began to tell, so I tried to continue the dialogue. ‘Why the fuck did you shoot me? I did as you asked, where’s Amanda? I want to speak to my wife.’
‘Where are you?’ Said the voice on the line, the crackling sound coming from the speaker masking his voice, and hopefully mine.
‘Have you forgotten the rules? I’m not about to tell you that am I? I want to speak to Amanda!’
‘Have you forgotten the rules? You know I cannot let you do that.’
‘I did what you asked, I kept my side of the bargain, and you shot me in the shoulder.’
‘No you didn’t do as we said, two women for your wife was the deal. If you had done that you would now have her, but you fucked up.’
‘It’s not possible to get two.’
‘Then your wife will take their place, it’s perfectly simple, every woman we hand over to Mr. Torriero is worth a crate of food. If you do not get us two women, your wife will go.’
‘How do I know if you haven’t already given her to them? She might be dead.’
‘You don’t know, call it a leap of faith. Contact us when you have two more, you have three days.’
The speaker went dead, I sat down on my bed to write up the days events, with the walkie talkie conversation still playing on my mind.
3/11/2027 - Time 12:15
When I woke this morning, I was still worried about the conversation I had over the walkie talkie last night,
it had stopped me getting a good night sleep. I was struggling to decide whether to tell anyone about it, or keep it to myself. It would worry them unnecessarily, and they have enough to deal with. I don’t believe Lee told the gang where this place was, or they would have raided it already, they clearly wanted me to tell them, and Roy didn’t seem to appreciate any mention of Lee’s name. I walked across the landing to Roy and Nancy’s room and knocked on the door, after a few seconds, a fully dressed Roy opened it and walked out. I tried to catch a glimpse inside the room as he shut the door behind him, but it was very dark and the curtains were still closed.
‘How’s Nancy feeling Roy? Is she coming out of her room today?’
‘She’s better than yesterday, hopefully she will feel up to it.’
‘We’re all going to stay until she’s given birth, to make sure everything goes to plan. Everyone’s worried about her, she didn’t seem herself.’
Aftermath: The Complete Collection (Books 1 & 2) Page 5